VOLUME 11 No. 1 | JANUARY 12, 2021

CONTRACT TALKS
Sign the petition for COVID premiums on the National Assembly website

The APTS urges you to sign an online petition set up on the National Assembly website with the help of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, MNA for Gouin. This petition demands that health and social services professionals and technicians be given two premiums created in response to the pandemic, the 8% premium and the rising scale premium (which can reach $1000). All APTS members are entitled to these premiums, and especially those working in technical medical departments such as clinical labs, medical imaging, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, and medical electrophysiology.

The petition asks the Québec government:

  • to give the 8% premium (retroactively to April 4, 2020) and the rising scale premium to professionals and technicians who are entitled to it in institutions designated COVID-19 centres as of May 10, 2020;
  • to create a premium specifically designed for professionals and technicians, retroactive to May 10, 2020, if it believes that the criteria and objectives of the 8% and rising scale premiums do not fit these employees' situation.

Don’t wait – click and sign now!

SOCIAL SECURITY
Change of address

Have you recently moved? Don’t forget to give your employer your new address. He will send it on to Retraite Québec, the SSQ and others, and you will continue to receive relevant information from these organizations.

If you want to make sure Retraite Québec and the SSQ have your contact information, you can confirm this over the phone or, for the SSQ, through their Customer Centre.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTION
Health is a right

At a time when pressure on the health and social services system has never been greater, Droits et libertés (a periodical published by the Ligue des droits et libertés ) is putting out a special issue on the right to health. Among other things, the authors show that the right to health is deeply dependent on government policies affecting the social determinants of health and the public’s participation in decisions.

Speakers who took part in the launch can be heard on the webcast of the event. You may also be interested in reading Lucie Lamarche’s introduction, entitled “Vers une réflexion collective sur le droit à la santé” (“Towards a collective reflection on health as a right”).

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Getting ready for a major hearing

After years of working on the issues, making representations, and waiting, the APTS is finally getting the opportunity to explain what it expects from Québec’s occupational health and safety regime at a parliamentary committee hearing scheduled for January 19. We will be filing a brief on how to better prevent risks and ensure compensation for work-related accidents and occupational diseases. The APTS will argue that Bill 59, tabled by Minister Jean Boulet, includes both advances and unacceptable setbacks, and that it must be amended. To be continued.