HEALTH CARE REFORM (PLAN SANTÉ)
Santé Québec: the health care reform gets off on the wrong foot

The APTS strongly condemns Bill 15, the Loi visant à rendre le système de santé et de services sociaux plus efficace, tabled by the government as part of its reform of the health care system. “The whole approach to the introduction of this bill was fundamentally flawed by the failure to consult employees and other stakeholders in the field prior to tabling the legislation,” said APTS president Robert Comeau. “Government after government has been making the same mistakes for decades: more centralization and less consultation. It’s the perfect recipe for making matters worse.”

For more information, see our press release.

BlueAPTS
Can we afford a strong health and social service system?

When it comes to investing in public services, the political class is quick to dish up the same old phony pragmatism: there’s no money in the coffers (apart from the occasional band-aid measure) and money doesn’t grow on trees. In the first article in our series “Can we afford a strong health and social service system?”, we assess the first of these claims by looking at Québec’s current financial situation as outlined in the 2023-2024 budget. And if you want to dig a little deeper, we think you might like the latest issue of our APTS Alert newsletter!

ORGANIZATION OF WORK AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
OPTILAB: the pressure mounts

As OPTILAB marked its sixth anniversary on April 1, the various clusters and extra-territorial partner labs continued to move ahead with their plans and some are busier than ever. Yet the sheer scale of the damage is becoming clear wherever the project has advanced further. There is a pressing need to put things in perspective and conduct a critical assessment. That message has actually begun to sink in and the APTS will keep amplifying it. To learn more about the latest developments, see the second part of our OPTILAB newsletter.

Call for candidates| Provincial committee on gender and sexual diversity

Would you like to be involved in the work being done by the APTS to analyze issues and realities faced by people from the gender and sexual diversity community, and to raise awareness of their situation? If so, we urge you to join the provincial committee on gender and sexual diversity. Those interested should fill out the candidacy form and send it to elections@apts.com no later than 4 p.m. on April 14. For more information, see our web page dedicated to this election (in French).

Maintaining emergency and ambulance services at the Lachine Hospital: sign the petition!

In response to the closing of the emergency room at the Lachine Hospital, a petition has been launched on the site of the National Assembly to ask the government to “ensure that people’s life and health are not jeopardized by maintaining the Lachine Hospital’s community mission, which is to provide hospital and specialized services, including surgical and inpatient services, emergency and ambulance services, and intensive care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” The APTS encourages you to join the movement by signing the petition and sharing it with others.

LABOUR RELATIONS
Employer's seach through professional emails: arbitrator rules in favour of the APTS

In May 2021, the CISSS de la Côte-Nord filed an employer grievance and suspended two employees after the publication of an article in Le Devoir that painted a bleak picture of living and working conditions in a Côte-Nord youth centre. The CISSS’s chief complaint against the union and the two employees was that they had given the journalist confidential information.

To identify the employees who had contributed to the media report, the employer searched through professional emails. The APTS argued that this search was illegal and raised an objection at the hearing, saying that the emails could not be filed by the employer as evidence.

The arbitrator upheld our objection, saying that searching through emails is a violation of the right to privacy and the right of association, and that to accept this evidence would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. The ruling may also prove to have decided on the merits of the case, since it states that the article in Le Devoir did not disclose any confidential information.

Application of ministerial orders regarding COVID-19: the APTS wins a first victory

On March 16, an arbitrator ruled that the CISSS des Laurentides had acted in a discriminatory manner towards an employee who held a full-time position in a CHSLD and was gradually returning to work on a part-time basis following an accident. The employer had refused to give her the rising-scale COVID premium, claiming that she did not meet eligibility criteria because she was not working full time and because the reason for her absence was not on the list of reasons that would allow employees to receive the premium prorated to the hours they had worked. The APTS, for its part, argued that the employer’s application of the ministerial orders was discriminatory under the Québec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The arbitrator upheld our grievance, stating that the employer was, in fact, acting in a discriminatory manner. This confirms that including or excluding certain types of absence is an arbitrary decision that perpetuates stereotypes and prejudices in relation to disability, compromising the right to full and equal recognition and exercise of a person’s human rights and freedoms without distinction, exclusion or preference. To learn more, see the page on our website dedicated to this ruling.