DECISION-MAKING BODIES
A brief review of 2022's last General Council meeting

Your delegates assembled in Sherbrooke on November 9-10 for this year’s last General Council meeting. The meeting mainly revolved around unpacking Minister Dubé’s health care reform, the “Plan Santé”, in order to lay bare its blind spots and the dangers it represents, and also to map out the APTS’s political response to the plan. The meeting also provided an opportunity to analyze the results of the surveys conducted among technologists in the fields of medical imaging, radiation oncology, medical electrophysiology and nuclear medicine, as well as the results of the survey on the Québec program for mental health disorders (Programme québécois pour les troubles mentaux - PQPTM). Artist Ingrid Falaise was generous enough to share her personal experience with the delegates in order to raise awareness of the complex reality of domestic violence. A more detailed account will be published in an upcoming issue of the Fil@pts — stay tuned!

ORGANIZATION OF WORK AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
How not to deal with the mental health crisis

The government is making a pretense of dealing with the mental health crisis with its plan for a quick roll-out of its program for mental health disorders (PQPTM) in all the health and social service sector institutions. But doubts are being raised about the effectiveness and limitations of the program: a survey of the 3,000 APTS members working in the field of mental health shows that it could actually be detrimental to the treatment of various mental health disorders. To learn more, see the Current issues article on the subject and read the article published on the TVA Nouvelles website following TVA’s interview with APTS president Robert Comeau. An online provincial-level meeting of APTS-member psychologists is being held on November 17 to discuss this and other issues.

LABOUR RELATIONS
Easing of COVID measures affecting unvaccinated persons

As part of the easing of public health measures, the government adopted an order in council (1718-2022) on November 9 lifting the restrictions that applied to employees who were not adequately protected against COVID-19. It is therefore no longer necessary to be adequately protected or to undergo regular screening tests in order to work in the health and social service sector and benefit from the double-time overtime pay as per the terms of the Ministerial Directive. Employees who were on unauthorized leave without loss of pay because they did not take the diagnostic tests may return to work.

Labour relations: let's share our knowledge!

It was with much enthusiasm that the APTS held its first labour relations seminar on November 8 under the theme “Labour relations: let’s share our knowledge!” The speakers emphasized our organization’s major contribution to the health and social service sector in the area of labour relations, while the invited delegates soaked up information about milestone decisions in the APTS’s history, which helped explain key concepts. It was an occasion for knowledge-sharing that will undoubtedly serve APTS members well in ensuring their rights are upheld.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Defining, preventing and dealing with violence in the workplace

In the latest issue of Objectif Prévention, the magazine of the Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail du secteur affaires sociales (ASSTSAS) – a non-profit association dedicated to occupational health and safety in Québec’s health and social services sector – there is a feature on preventing violence (p.14) that we urge you to read. The authors provide definitions of aggression and violence, sketch out the implementation of a preventive program, and talk about how the model referred to as the “Approche globale de la situation de travail” (general approach to health and safety at work) can be used in a violent situation. Go ahead and subscribe to the magazine, it's free!

SOCIAL SECURITY
A possible error in the 2021 RREGOP statement of participation?

When you received your 2021 statement of participation from the Government and Public Employees Retirement Plan (Régime de retraite des employés du gouvernement et des organismes publics - RREGOP), you may have noticed that the pensionable salary as reported by your employer was lower than for the year 2020, even though you performed the same amount of work. Rest assured that there is nothing amiss. There were 27 pay periods in the 2020 fiscal year rather than 26. This means that your pensionable salary for 2020 may be higher than your pensionable salary for 2021 even though the amount of work you perform has not changed. This situation arises every 10 years. Please take note that the 2020 salary is annualized proportionally so it has a negligible impact on your best five-year average.

For more information, don’t hesitate to contact Retirement Québec customer services directly.