Quebec nurses threaten to stop working overtime as talks continue for new contract

Members of a Quebec union representing 80,000 health-care workers say the latest government offers are insufficient, and the union is calling on its members to refuse overtime beginning Sept. 19. Quebec health-care workers and members from the Quebec’s nurses union (FIQ) demonstrate to demand a new contract negotiation in Montreal, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press)

A Quebec union representing 80,000 health-care workers dismissed the province's latest contract offer Friday and called on its members to refuse to work overtime beginning Sept. 19.

Federation interprofessionnelle de la sante du Quebec, known as the FIQ, is the only major union without a contract after the large-scale labour conflict last year that closed hundreds of schools for weeks and delayed surgeries. A few days ago, the union marked 500 days without a collective agreement, which expired on March 31, 2023.

The FIQ represents most of the province's nurses, and also respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists -- technicians who operate blood pumps during cardiac surgery. The overtime threat risks causing major disruption across the health-care network, where employees are routinely asked to work overtime because of widespread labour shortages, particularly for nurses.

"With its stubbornness, the government is leaving us with no other option than to implement more drastic measures, such as completely stopping overtime," Julie Bouchard, FIQ president, said in a statement.

"Health-care professionals, who have been sounding the alarm for months, will not be silenced by empty promises and manoeuvres disconnected from reality."

The union says the government's latest offer, made on Thursday, is nothing more than "smoke and mirrors."

Negotiations are stuck around the government's demand that nurses, on a voluntary basis, be free to move from one health-care facility to another to address needs in the system where they arise.

But the FIQ says the measure would disregard nurses' expertise and treat them like interchangeable pawns. The union says the government's latest proposal demands even more flexibility from its members on the issue of transfers.

Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel rejected the union's interpretation of the government's offer.

"It is false to say that the government wants to increase travel. It is irresponsible to scare the population, when our goal is to provide better care for them with better organization of work in hospitals," LeBel wrote Friday on her X account. "And this, always with adequate training and on a voluntary basis."

"We must continue to negotiate to reach an agreement," LeBel added. "Our priority is the patient."

Quebec's order of nurses has expressed concern about the consequences of transferring nurses around the health-care system.

Luc Mathieu, president of the order, wrote on Facebook, "we must start from the premise that nurses are not interchangeable."

Transfers could work under certain circumstances, he said, like when a nurse in a long-term care home moves to a long-term care unit of a health facility. But a nurse in a seniors home can't be transferred to an intensive care unit, he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2024.