Unpaid premiums: unacceptable delays

“It’s infuriating to see that working conditions duly obtained through negotiation are being set aside and postponed, at the same time as the red carpet is being rolled out for the so-called top guns at Santé Québec, who have been given 10% increases.”

APTS president Robert Comeau did not mince words as he sharply criticized the government’s carelessness and inertia. The government is still incapable of paying the premiums (and adjustments) obtained as a result of the last contract talks, claiming that the delays are caused by problems with information technology.

In every institution where premiums and increases have not yet been paid, the APTS has taken action to demand that APTS members be paid the amounts they are owed, with interest.

For more information

A new director for Québec's youth protection system (DPJ)

Ms. Lesley Hill has been appointed as the provincial director of youth protection following the turbulent events that have caused youth protection to make headlines in recent weeks.

At a press conference, Ms. Hill, who was a member of the Laurent Commission, said that her “first message will be transparency.” Among other things, she mentioned that a very clear directive will be sent telling people to denounce “intolerable” situations.

We hope she has the means and the independence that she will need to carry out her mandate. This is an indispensable prerequisite to the office – as the APTS has argued on many occasions, before the Laurent Commission and elsewhere.

For more information

Photo taken from the website of the Laurent Commission (Commission spéciale sur les Droits des enfants et la protection de la jeunesse)

Youth protection workers: it's time to be vigilant about your premiums

Have you been doing more than half of an overtime evening or weekend shift to provide youth protection services defined as “critical”? Make sure you get your premium.

Thanks to an agreement between the government and the APTS, you have been eligible for a lump-sum amount since October 1.

However, identifying services provided during a critical period depends on a weekly assessment carried out by your employer, who must inform your union. You need to be vigilant to make sure this happens.

Contact your local union team if the amounts are not paid or if your employer systematically won’t let you do overtime during critical periods.

About youth protection premiums

A second factsheet on workload

“Performance culture” has taken over in the management of the health and social services system. Quantitative indicators and measurable outcomes are now largely dominant, at the expense of the qualitative aspects of your work.

This has a devastating impact on your workload, which keeps getting heavier. At the same time, your employer has less and less understanding of the actual nature of your work.

Our second factsheet explores this situation. The APTS is publishing a series of twelve factsheets as part of its information campaign on work overload.

Worth reading on the APTS website.

See the factsheet

Working conditions that "send shivers down your spine"

That is the expression used by Isabelle Mantha, APTS provincial representative for the Montérégie, to describe the conditions in which employees are required to work in residences with continuous assistance (RACs).

Threats, aggression, injuries and inadequate facilities are among the reasons that led some of you, last Wednesday, to demonstrate in order to demand that the government provide greater resources (both financial and material) to correct a situation that has become unbearable in RACs.

The CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest received 483 incident reports for 2023-2024 alone, 367 of them directly related to risks of violence! Things have to change.

For more information

Speaking up for the medical imaging professions

“I’ve talked to many technologists and I’m a technologist myself, and I can tell you that there’s always been a feeling of unfairness, given the importance of our work in the health care system.”

This is one of the things that APTS president Robert Comeau said in an interview with Le Devoir at the beginning of the Medical Imaging, Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Oncology and Medical Electrophysiology Technologists Week.

Among other things, the APTS president sharply criticized the government for its unwillingness to use anything but temporary measures (premiums) to address the labour shortage. These are solutions that completely ignore root causes.

Read the interview (in French)
 

A new working group on medical imaging

The APTS is proud to announce the creation of a new working group on medical imaging.

The goal is to ensure that we are in a better position to take charge of the professional and work organization issues that are specific to this sector in order to improve our members’ conditions of practice and, in so doing, to help maintain the quality of public services.

The group will be made up of one technologist (an APTS member) from each institution, and may also include, from each institution, one local executive member who is responsible for this sector.

A first meeting will take place on November 20. Stay tuned.

Seniors: a meeting with Minister Bélanger

APTS president Robert Comeau and first vice-president Josée Fréchette recently met with the minister responsible for seniors, Sonia Bélanger.

Thousands of APTS members work in the continuum of care and services provided to older and more vulnerable people, and the goal of the meeting was to make sure that their voices were heard.

The meeting was an opportunity to address a wide range of topics, including the future provincial policy on home care and services, denouncing elder abuse, and reducing the administrative load in home support services.

Webinar: Making sense of the RREGOP and other pension benefits

Whether you’re at the beginning of your career or about to retire, this webinar will give you highly relevant information about your contribution to your pension plan.

When: November 19 at 5 p.m. (in French)

Duration: About two hours

Sign me up

If you have a question, write to us at retraite.assurance@aptsq.com. Union leave time cannot be granted for this type of meeting.

Petition to improve the quality of child care services

According to the latest report from Québec's Auditor General, some 30% of the child care services that were assessed did not reach the minimum level of educational quality recommended by the Ministry of the Family.

The proportion of services failing to meet requirements rises to 60% in subsidized and non-subsidized daycare centres. The Ministry, however, has not come up with any kind of plan to correct the situation – a lack of action that is sharply criticized by the Ma place au travail coalition.

To denounce the Ministry’s inertia and put pressure on it to act, the coalition urges you to sign and share its petition demanding the implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations (in French).

Sign the petition

You too can fight back against the Plan santé

Riposte au Plan santé (“Fighting Back Against the Plan Santé”) is a social media campaign telling Quebecers about the many setbacks created by the Dubé reform.

The APTS is taking part in the campaign, and you can help by sharing the visuals available on the Riposte au Plan santé Facebook page.

Visuals to share (in French)

CISSS du Bas-Saint-Laurent: two employees win their case before the arbitrator

Thanks to the APTS, two employees who had been promoted have now received the salary protection that their employer did not want to give them.

Were they entitled to such protection, given that their job title had gone from social work technician to social worker as part of a replacement assignment?

The employer claimed that they were not entitled to salary protection because they did not officially have a position at the time of their promotion. This meant a lower salary.

The arbitrator ruled that an employee whose job title changes does not have to hold a position in order to benefit from the “promotion rule”.

The new salary scale that is therefore applicable should provide them with compensation equal or superior to what they previously received.

Measure your union knowledge!

Are you an expert on APTS news? Would you like to become one?

We have so much information coming at us from every direction that it is not always easy to stay on top of union news.

The Fil@pts is offering you a quiz that will help you realize what you do know – and become even more knowledgeable!

Take our quiz to home in on the latest news.

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