Organization of work: let's talk about it!
Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel hasn’t made any significant improvement to her salary offers, and she claims that unions are refusing to set priorities among their demands and discuss the organization of work. What is actually going on here?
Right from the start, the APTS presented demands that were prioritized, realistic, feasible, and cross-sectoral. These demands would improve specific working conditions for all Class 4 employees in all sectors, from the extended family of medical imaging job titles to psychosocial services, labs, rehabilitation, nutrition, and medical records, to name just a few of the crucial sectors in which you provide essential services.
In addition to fighting the labour shortage and work overload, we have a number of key demands designed to improve your working conditions, including:
- overtime pay at twice the regular rate for everyone
- enhanced premiums for evening, night and weekend shifts
- reimbursement of fees for membership in a professional order
- a shorter period before employees can obtain an extra week of vacation leave, and an additional 6th week of vacation leave
- extending the critical care premium (12% or 14%) to all employees working with service users in emergency, intensive care, neonatal, or burn units, regardless of the location where the services are provided.
To relaunch negotiations, the APTS and its Front commun partners in health and social services have put forward many solutions in which organization of work plays a part, including proposals about a review of premiums, the use of independent labour, work-time arrangements, overtime pay, and vacation leave.
Meanwhile, although the government insists on the importance of the priorities it has established at the sectoral tables, one thing is clear: its proposals do not improve your working conditions. It says it wants to become an employer of choice, but it is still not responding to the demands you have asked us to put forward in current contract talks.