Defending the Working Conditions of Essential Workers

Quebec Public Sector Workers Oppose Ministerial Use of Emergency Powers to Arbitrarily Set Working Conditions

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a state of public health emergency was declared by the Government of Quebec on March 13. In quick succession, on March 15 and 21, Quebec health care workers, who are on the front lines of taking care of the people and curbing the pandemic, learned through ministerial orders 2020-04 and 2020-07 that entire portions of their working conditions, that have been negotiated and are part of their collective agreements, were suspended. This suspension is being justified under powers claimed by the Minister of Health under section 123 of the Public Health Act.

Section 123 of the Public Health Act says that the government or the Minister, during a public health emergency, may order any measure necessary to protect the health of the public. Nowhere in the measures specified in section 123 is there any reference to the suspension of collective agreements or the unilateral modification of working conditions for health sector employees. No discussion on why the government thinks such actions assist in addressing the current crisis has taken place with health care workers. No explanation has been provided as to how this protects the health of the public. This is an arbitrary exercise of powers that the government and the Minister have given themselves under the hoax of taking emergency measures during conditions of the pandemic.

Among other measures decreed by ministerial orders, the government (the employer) can "cancel union leaves already granted or refuse to grant new ones." It can also cancel any leave or suspend any leave already in progress.

The employer may now "assign employees to the place, time or duties of another job title, [...] to the extent that the concerned employee meets the normal requirements of the job, without regard to the notion of position, activity centre, service, shift or any other provision limiting the mobility of employees."

A worker on disability may be required to return to work "for the purpose of performing certain duties consistent with his or her residual abilities, with the recommendation of the employer's designated physician."

The government can also impose work days of up to 12 hours, and "suspend or cancel agreed working time arrangements and refuse to grant new arrangements."

Employers can now hire additional staff without having to take into account "the rates and scales of pay in the health and social services network."

For three decades, health care workers have been holding the system together against its wrecking by the anti-social neo-liberal agenda imposed by successive governments in Quebec. For three decades they have been blackmailed that if they do not overwork in understaffed conditions and if they do not perform miracles to look after patients with not enough beds, corridor medicine, irrational management practices, the constant fight against plans to privatize the cleaning and laundry services and so on ad infinitum, they will be responsible for abandoning the patients. Now they are supposed to cave to these decrees because the pandemic needs the peoples looked after. It is blackmail pure and simple. These measures are an insult to their intelligence because it is not the health care workers who have abandoned the people. It is governments and their anti-social pay-the-rich agenda which has cut back and wrecked the modern facilities and access in Quebec, as is the case across the country. Once again, the government is insulting the intelligence of the health care workers who at all times uphold their professional ethics.

"For many years, nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, and clinical perfusionists have been working in unacceptable conditions," said the Interprofessional Health Care Federation of Quebec (FIQ) which represents nearly 76,000 health care workers. "This possibility to loosen and change the rules will have the effect of demobilizing FIQ members who cannot take it any more. They need recognition, not another lash. We expect Minister McCann to address our members publicly to assure them that they will not be exploited any further!"

The Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), which represents 110,000 members in the health and social services sector, highlighted the sector's experience with the so-called exceptional measures that are becoming the norm.

"Rather than sending a signal that local parties must respect public health guidelines and that they must work together to deal with the crisis, the government is giving itself the means to completely disrupt working conditions. We understand that the government must give itself the means to deal with the crisis, but it must use them exceptionally and not as a way to manage the network. We already know that when exceptional measures such as mandatory overtime become a management tool, it poses a serious problem for staff.

"Since the beginning of this crisis, we have been working to help the network get through the pandemic. In the last few days, we have been addressing the Ministry to voice our concerns. We must avoid at all costs a drift toward authoritarianism in the network. We are calling for dialogue in the institutions. Management must avoid a blanket application of this order. The local unions are well placed to propose solutions to improve things in the face of this crisis and we must be brought into the picture."

The Health Care Federation of Quebec (FSQ-CSQ), with more than 7,000 members working in the sector, also maintains that health care workers cannot be excluded from decisions that affect them as front-line workers if the crisis is to be resolved. It says:

"Since the beginning of the crisis, Premier Fran ois Legault, and the Minister of Health and Social Services Danielle McCann have been saying everywhere that we must take care of health care workers, our guardian angels [the expression being used by Quebec Premier during the pandemic when talking about workers in health care and social services -- ed. note]. And this is now reflected in the suspension of all clauses that guaranteed us a minimum of decency in our working conditions. This government has a strange way of taking care of us.

"[...] these women and men who have had to fight on the front lines since the beginning of the crisis, despite the risks to their own health, are now being thanked by having 12-hour shifts imposed, unlimited flexibility, the abolition of all leave and holidays, and the loss of wages.

"Finally, it must be noted that despite its talk of guardian angels, the Legault government is treating us with the same lack of recognition as was the case before the crisis. Fortunately, despite this, I want to assure the public that they can always count on the professionalism and unwavering commitment of health care personnel and I call upon the government to discuss respectful work arrangements for personnel."

The working conditions of health care workers are the living conditions of the population. Let the health care workers set their own working conditions. They are quite capable of staffing according to the needs of each situation and circumstance. The duty of the government is to give them what they need and they say they need. No to exceptional measures! No to ministerial police dictate!

This article was published in

Number 19 - April 7, 2020

Article Link:
Defending the Working Conditions of Essential Workers: Quebec Public Sector Workers Oppose Ministerial Use of Emergency Powers to Arbitrarily Set Working Conditions

    

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