Family daycare managers reach agreement with Quebec

Quebec's family daycares union has reached a deal with Quebec. (Karoline Boucher / The Canadian Press)

The agreement between the Quebec government and the union organization representing around 9,000 Responsables de services éducatifs (RSE) in family daycares has been ratified by 84 per cent of unionized workers.

The CSQ-affiliated Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance made the announcement early Friday morning. It is the union organization representing the largest number of home childcare providers in Quebec.

“We are pleased with the result. Through these negotiations, we were able to make some progress on a number of issues: allowing a little more access to infants, and also protecting our RSEs with protection against inflation. So, it's not perfect, but the agreement is satisfactory”, said federation president Anne-Marie Bellerose.

The RSEs are not paid by the hour, as is the case for workers in the public daycare centres (CPE). Instead, they receive a subsidy from the Families Ministry, which takes into account not only their remuneration, but also the cost of food for the children, toys and other supplies needed for daycare.

When asked if, taking into account these different forms of remuneration, she feels that her RSEs have obtained the same increases as those in the public sector, i.e. 17.4 per cent salary increases over five years, she agrees.

“In fact, when you add up the gains of the agreement for our managers, it's about a 20.6 per cent increase over five years that has been obtained by the different parameters. So we've reached the public sector settlement,” said Bellerose.

Families Minister Suzanne Roy and Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel were delighted with this agreement in principle when it was signed: “This five-year agreement (2023-2028) covers more than 70 per cent of those in charge of a home-based educational childcare service (RSGE). It will increase the number of spaces, encourage the care of infants (under 18 months) and improve the attraction and retention of RSGEs.”

New places?

The agreement is important in a context where Quebec is looking to open thousands of childcare places to meet demand.

Bellerose believes that the renewal of her RSEs' collective agreement is likely to provide a boost in this regard.

“We hope that this increase will encourage new educational services managers to open a centre,” said Bellerose. “Perhaps some managers who currently have a setting with six (children) will want to have an assistant to offer three more places. Also, with the increased allowance for infants, maybe they'll be more interested in taking on more infants. So, we hope so. We'll see the results over the next few years.”

The FIPEQ officials held walkouts lasting a few hours, starting on Nov. 11, opening their daycare services later and later. After a few weeks of these short strikes, they were considering increasing their duration, but negotiations with Quebec City finally accelerated and bore fruit, Bellerose said.

The agreement with the FIPEQ is the first to intervene in the childcare sector in general. No agreement has yet been reached to renew collective agreements in the public daycare sector - where the CSQ-affiliated FIPEQ also represents 3,000 members.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 20, 2024.