VOLUME 15 No. 7 | April 14, 2025

Vox pop

For National Medical Laboratory Week, the APTS headed out to meet members who work in the sector, people who are passionate about their jobs.

What do they like about their work? What motivates them? What message do they have for younger people joining the profession? Find out in the short video above (in French) and hear about their pride and love for the field.

Read the press release

Children will finally have their own commissioner!

Marie-Ève Brunet-Kitchen will be the first Commissioner for Children’s Well-Being and Rights. She assumes her duties on May 12. The APTS welcomes this long-awaited appointment.

Ms. Brunet-Kitchen is known for her commitment to social justice, equity and respect for the rights of children and families. She will be a key agent in this important mission.

Creating this position was one of the major recommendations from the special commission on the rights of children and youth protection, the Laurent Commission.

Find out more

We can fund a strong public network!

What if we said it was possible to raise almost $10 billion to fund health and social services, without making cuts elsewhere?

Believe it or not, it’s not a pipe dream: it’s a choice we can make as a society. To accomplish this, the APTS is proposing bold, but realistic, fiscal measures, such as taxing the assets of the ultra-rich.

Do you want to know how it would work? APTS vice-president Émilie Charbonneau explains it in the above video (in French).

Building a shield against austerity:
a much-needed response

With the 2025-2026 budget ringing in a new era of austerity, it’s important to act. The APTS is back on offense with its idea of the budgetary shield.

It’s a way of guaranteeing stable, sufficient funding for health and social services, based on the real evolution of needs. It’s a solution that’s both possible and concrete and, above all, necessary.

We need to break the cycle of making the public system poorer. See our analysis in the latest edition of APTS Alert and find out why we need to enshrine this proposal in law.

Read the APTS Alert

A heavy burden to carry

We’ve all heard about the code of silence and fear of reprisals.

It’s a form of pressure that’s a heavy burden to carry. It can contribute to an increased workload and have a serious impact on well-being and physical and mental health.

The result is stress, a sense of powerlessness, isolation and reduced engagement. Breaking the silence isn’t easy, but it’s the only solution.

Find out how your local team can help you in the APTS’s 12th and final factsheet, published as part of its information campaign on workload.

Read the factsheet

Digital transformation: a new site designed just for you

Are you engaging with new technologies or already grappling with their challenges? The APTS had you in mind in launching our new site on the introduction of artificial intelligence systems and the digital transformation in the health and social services system.

It includes factsheets, documents with our positions on these technologies and videos developed in collaboration with the IRIS.*

It also contains a questionnaire for individuals who have experienced these changes in the past two years.

The questionnaire will document the impact on your practice and the organization of your work and help orient our union efforts.

* Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques

See the website

A victory thanks to a new clause in the collective agreement

The new clause 19.03 negotiated by the APTS in the last provincial collective agreement tipped the scales in our favour in a dispute with the CISSS de Lanaudière.

The CISSS was refusing to pay certain technologists overtime at twice the rate of their regular salary, claiming the clause applied only to 24/7 job structures.

The arbitrator disagreed. If services are offered on a 24/7 schedule, the clause applies, regardless of the structure.

The APTS was wise to negotiate this exclusive clause, which reflects the reality of employees, particularly those working at night. This decision confirms it.

The float team: a band-aid solution

The APTS has agreed to prolong the public float team agreement, which was originally implemented to support hard-hit regions, until March 2026.

Since the team’s launch in August 2024, only eight APTS members have participated, demonstrating the limitations of the agreement.

To improve it, the APTS has proposed expanding it to other services and regions, in addition to suggesting concrete solutions: voluntary displacements, leave without pay to work in the north, and higher isolation and remoteness premiums.

The government didn’t include these solutions in the agreement, but they say they’re open to discussing them in other forums. We’ll keep up the fight.

Read the press release

"Buttons" to find out more

In Fil@pts parlance, “buttons” are the small blue boxes that often appear under news items.

These buttons are always associated with a link. When clicked, they lead you to more information.

The Fil@pts likes to keep things simple: the buttons allow you to learn more without drowning in detail.

The same applies to the illustrations that appear to the left of news items. They’re also associated with a link, generally the same as the corresponding buttons.

Take the latest quiz

To counteract Meta’s decision to block the publication on Facebook of news originating with Canadian media, the APTS is now providing a summary of its media interventions (in French) on its website at aptsq.com/media2025. You can go to this page to directly access articles and interviews related to your union.