The Interprofessional Health Federation, which represents 80,000 nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, denounces the situation, in a context in which there is already demotivation and disaffection among the staff.
Selon son évaluation, les personnel infirmier qui sera touché par la fin de ces primes, le 30 septembre, perdra jusqu’à 7.5 % pour le quart de soir, 6 % pour le quart de nuit et 3.5 % pour le quart at daytime.
The FIQ states that “it is not against remuneration adjusted according to certain more demanding conditions”, but rather it is “against the idea that the State chooses arbitrarily, almost individually, and quarter by quarter, to which bonuses will be applied” .
“The conditions on the network are such that practically every shift deserves a bonus,” the union organization states in a public statement about the upcoming end of these bonuses.
The FIQ demands, for example, “that the salary linked to weekends be increased by 50%” to interest health professionals.
In fact, these bonuses must be renegotiated, while the parties have already been busy, for months, negotiating the renewal of collective agreements in the public and parapublic sectors. These agreements expired on March 31.
The FIQ would have liked these bonuses to remain in force until new provisions were negotiated in the next collective agreements.
The federation maintains that what Quebec is experiencing is not so much a nursing shortage as “a saving grace created by deplorable working conditions and, in particular, an unreasonable workload.”
On Thursday, it was the common inter-union front of the public sector that also denounced the end of certain bonuses on September 30. This also affects, for example, retention bonuses for psychologists, bonuses for medical secretaries, and bonuses for certain specialized workers.
Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel responded that some of these bonuses had already been extended in March and then in June, as a sign of good faith. But now they have to be renegotiated according to priorities, she explained.
