COVID-19
Your signature for $1,000

APTS members, the battle’s not over! If you haven’t yet signed our petition to the Legault government, now’s the time to act. What’s it about? We want the attendance premium (the COVID premium), worth up to $1,000 a month, to be made available to all job titles held by professionals and technicians in the health and social services system. It’s time for the injustice to stop.

FEMINIST ACTION
Debating feminism

March 8 is International Women’s Rights Day, and our theme this year is The future is feminist. Let’s be visible, stand together, and say what we believe in by sharing the digital and promotional tools developed by the Collectif 8 mars (of which the APTS is a member).

It’s an election year in Québec, and the Collectif has invited spokespersons on the status of women from the four major parties to debate feminist issues. You can watch the event on March 8 on the Intersyndicale des femmes Facebook page, which is full of ideas to help us design a feminist future.

For more information, see our press release (in French).

Early childhood: an article in Le Devoir and an open letter

The Intersyndicale des femmes, of which the APTS is a member, published an open letter in December arguing that a universal, public system to provide educational services for young children is crucially important for work/family balance.

That letter resonated in a special insert on International Women’s Day published in Le Devoir last Saturday. “Doing things by halves won’t get us anywhere,” said 4^th APTS vice-president Sandra Étienne in an interview. “The government says that CPEs [non-profit childcare centres] are important – and in the meantime, it’s subsidizing spots in private daycares. That’s not the solution!”

Étienne is adamant on the importance of daycare, making a key point in the context of International Women’s Rights Day: “This is essential if we want women to enter the job market.”

Asking for victims' stories

A committee of experts formed to review support measures for victims of sexual assault or spousal violence has begun its work. To gather evidence, the committee would like to hear from victims who took legal action to obtain justice or from people who provided them with support. The committee is particularly interested in the workplace.

The committee’s website will be receiving people’s stories until April 4, 2022. This article (in French) will tell you more about the committee.

LABOUR RELATIONS
Psychiatry premiums now available to more employees

Employees working in the activity centres or subcentres listed in Article 37.07 B) of our new provincial collective agreement are now eligible for the psychiatry premium.

The premium and a new 2.2% financial compensation are granted to employees assigned to the rehabilitation, care or supervision of beneficiaries in the designated settings.

You won’t receive the premium if you work in a psychiatric emergency unit and already receive the critical care premium or the enhanced critical care premium, or if you’re already eligible for the psychiatry premium and floating days off stipulated in Article 22.

For more information, contact your local team.

Overtime: a victory for the APTS

The APTS has won three grievances against the MUHC relating to overtime. The employer’s unfair allocation of overtime was the object of the dispute.

According to the arbitrator’s decision, “the Union has presented an overall picture demonstrating a priori an inequity between employees called on to work overtime during the periods with which we are concerned, and has established through a preponderance of evidence that the rule [stipulated in the collective agreement] was not followed in all cases. […] The fact that this might arise from mistakes [made by the Employer] changes nothing, even if such mistakes were made in good faith.”

PAY EQUITY AND SALARY RELATIVITY
Solidarity with physiotherapists

To physiotherapists and all other APTS members: have you signed our petition to Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel? If not, now is the time! We want the Treasury Board to act, at last, on its offer to settle pay equity maintenance complaints from 2010 for job titles associated with physiotherapy. It’s been eleven years – eleven years too many. The ball’s in her court… and Sonia Lebel is also responsible for… democratic institutions.

Another complaint to the CNESST

The APTS has filed a complaint based on the fact that the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) has breached its legal obligations, failing to comply with the final deadline set by the CNESST for posting pay equity maintenance audits.

Twice in the past, the TBS has been allowed to postpone the deadline. Recently, it attempted the same thing again, but this time, the CNESST did not agree to its request.

As a result, the TBS has been failing to proceed since the end of December 2021 – its final deadline – which is why the APTS has now filed a complaint.

LOCAL NEGOTIATIONS
Professional practice: a new budget

Good news for health and social services technicians and professionals: our collective agreement now includes a yearly budget to help employees develop their professional practice.

Article 31.03 of the national provisions says that every year from April 1 to March 31, employers have to allocate a budget equal to 0.28% of a bargaining unit’s total payroll for this purpose.

For the current fiscal year, the budget is prorated to the period from January 30 (that’s when the collective agreement came into force) to March 31, 2022. That doesn’t leave much time to spend the money, unless there’s an agreement with your local team to carry it over to next year.

Transitional measures are possible to make the best use of the current year’s budget. Your local teams will keep you informed.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTION
The private sector and its tentacles

Private companies are always ogling the health and social services system – and they’re already far more present than we realize. IRIS, a research institute focusing on socio-economic issues, has just published two highly interesting factsheets on this topic. In areas such as insurance and labs, among others, private companies are systematically extending their tentacles.

The factsheet here describes the rise of the private sector, and the one here analyzes its vampire-like effect on labs. Understanding the private sector will help us fight it.

Conference on our post-COVID society

Did you miss the conference on what things will be like after the pandemic? Don’t worry, you can still watch it – it was captured on video. The theme of the event, held in French on February 16 and 17, was “After the pandemic: austerity, recovery or transition?”.

The presentation by Professor Tim Jackson of the University of Surrey was particularly interesting. Meanwhile, IRIS is developing factsheets on the post-pandemic economy – we’ll keep you informed as they’re published.

SOCIAL SECURITY
Information webinar on RREGOP and retirement

Whether you’re at the beginning of your career or just about to retire, our webinar has something for you: information that will help you optimize your participation in your pension plan.

The first session of the online webinar will take place in French on March 30, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. Click here to sign up.

Other dates and times (lunch-time and evening) will be scheduled, as well as a session in English. Stay tuned and keep an eye on Fil@apts.

The training activity lasts two hours, and no union leave time is granted for it. Write to us if you have any questions.