MONTREAL -- Quebec is taking further measures to encourage vaccination among nurses and other health-care workers, including cutting off bonuses.
Those workers who aren’t vaccinated are no longer eligible for the province’s bonuses meant to retain public-sector nurses, the government has announced, for the next few weeks while the workers await the vaccine deadline of Nov. 15.
The government has been giving thousands in bonuses to compensate its overworked nurses and others after 18 months of the pandemic. They’re drying up for those with one or no doses.
Health Minister Christian Dube didn’t take any questions about the move during an unrelated press conference on Monday.
The province is also preparing this week to take another step to cushion its expected staffing crunch as of Nov. 15. It will restrict the shifts that private-sector nurses are allowed to work in order to give those in the public sector preferable scheduling.
