The parties were back in conciliation at Quebec's labour tribunal on Friday, following a sit-in by operating room nurses at the Hôpital Fleurimont in Sherbrooke that lasted several hours on Thursday.
Conciliation began on Friday morning, and the tribunal was to convene the parties at 12:30 p.m., barring an agreement between the parties.
However, at lunchtime, the parties were still in conciliation - which is generally a good sign, as it means that the parties are still talking, rather than having to ask the tribunal to decide.
For several hours on Thursday, nurses in the Fleurimont Hospital operating room staged a sit-in to protest a change in practice announced by management regarding "on-call donation."
Through on-call donations, nurses can transfer on-call shifts to colleagues, a kind of arrangement among themselves.
While many nurses are happy with this arrangement, management feels that it causes overwork and exhaustion for some nurses. Management, therefore, announced that it would end the practice, prompting discontent and a sit-in in the operating room.
The FIQ (Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé), which represents the health care professionals, pointed out that the nurses who staged the sit-in had already returned to work on Thursday afternoon.
It added that its members "remained available to intervene in emergency situations" during the sit-in.
The FIQ is criticizing the employer's "failure to listen."
"The situation is deteriorating month by month in the operating room, and the employer is not taking into consideration the many solutions they have proposed," said the FIQ.
Several sit-ins have affected hospitals over the years, with nurses finding themselves overworked and exhausted, due to staff shortages and overtime, some of it, compulsory.
This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Aug. 11, 2023.
