The Need for Immediate Improvements in Working Conditions
- Interview, Denis Cloutier - 
Health care workers demonstration outside Quebec National
Assembly September 15, 2020.
Denis Cloutier is the President of the Union of
Health Care Professionals of the
Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal (FIQ SPS ESTIM).
Workers' Forum: What are
the main concerns of the union at this time regarding the conditions in
the sector? Denis Cloutier:
In the east end of Montreal, our first concern at the moment is
certainly the shortage of personnel, which is extremely severe in our
area. The pandemic has amplified the problem that was caused by years
of liberal austerity from which nurses, licensed practical nurses and
respiratory therapists have greatly
suffered. Conditions were already very difficult and the pandemic added
to the hardship. What happens in the nursing world when there is a
shortage is that the greater the staff shortage, the more hardships
there are for those who remain. The main hardship is the use of
mandatory overtime (MOT). In the east end of Montreal in particular,
several
factors, including the already existing conditions and of course
COVID-19, have led to many resignations. The pressure has increased on
those who remain, which has led to even more MOT, more mobility between
health establishments -- it's a vicious circle. We
must also understand the legacy left by the Liberal government's Minister of Health Gaétan Barrette in the way he
restructured the health care system in Quebec. The regions have been
greatly affected by the single-employer model. That is, the problems
created by the merging of institutions into Integrated Health and
Social Services
Centres (CISSS) and Integrated University Health and Social Services
Centres (CIUSSS) which became the employer for all health care
establishments in the region. Montreal is different. Minister Barrette
created several exceptions for Montreal. He created non-merged
establishments that have not been incorporated into a CISSS or a
CIUSSS. The
fact that these institutions are not merged makes them more attractive
places to work because they offer greater stability for those seeking
employment. Some of these institutions, such as the University of
Montreal Health Centre (CHUM), are beautiful, brand new hospitals that
attract staff. There is no mandatory overtime at the CHUM. There is
no residential and long-term care centre (CHSLD) attached to the CHUM,
unlike the CIUSSS and CISSS. People there work in a state-of-the-art
health care facility In the east end of Montreal,
our largest hospital is Maisonneuve-Rosemont. It's a hospital that has
had bad publicity the last few years because of a shortage of
personnel. It's an old hospital, in bad shape physically, so less
attractive. In our area there is no university. There is new real
estate development in the east end of Montreal and there
are only two hospitals, Maisonneuve-Rosemont and Santa Cabrini, while
there are several in the centre of the city. All
these changes contribute to the staff shortage which is really
worrisome. But the main reason remains the overload of work that
results in mandatory overtime. This is a phenomenon we see every day,
which creates enormous tension and suffering for the workers.
Another
of the main factors that led to the staff shortage is the use of
ministerial orders. Since the ministerial order of March 21, our
collective agreement is no longer respected. The order is still in
force in our CISSS and was used throughout the summer, during which we
had a brief respite from the pandemic. You can imagine how
much it is used when we experience a wave of infections, to
change our shifts, to send our nurses to CHSLDs to work night shifts,
evening shifts, irregular weekend shifts, without consulting them at
all. This is a serious breach of freedom for us. We
are also seeing a migration of our members to private employment
agencies. One wonders if this is not deliberately encouraged by the
government. It should be noted that with the ministerial order, the
government has broken our collective agreement, our employment
contract, but it has not broken the employment contract of the private
employment agencies. If the government was looking to promote private
agencies, it could not have done a better job. WF:
Recently, nurses have held several protest actions in workplaces.
DC: Actually, in recent
years there have been several sit-ins by nurses protesting their poor
working conditions, and these actions continue. Most recently, there
have also been actions in emergency rooms, and even in the intensive
care units, cancer clinics, etc. This typically happens when a team of
workers report for duty and
see that on the next shift five or six people are going to be missing
and therefore five or six of them will have to stay in MOT, so they
take action so that the employer will find staff for the next shift. It
can also happen that the action is organized by a team in solidarity
with the shift before them because too many of those workers have had
to
stay on MOT. These are spontaneous demonstrations of opposition to
working conditions that have become intolerable. It's a sign that
something is about to break in the network, and if we get hit by a
second wave it's certain that there will be service breakdowns.
WF: What demands are you
putting forward to change the situation? DC:
Of course there are negotiations with the government at the moment and
our situation could improve if the government agrees to our demands.
One solution that we believe will make an improvement is the
proper recognition of full-time work. There are a lot of people taking
refuge in part-time work in order to avoid the untenable conditions,
such as mandatory overtime, that are currently imposed on full-time
staff. The federation's demand is to make full-time work attractive and
start rebuilding acceptable working conditions by introducing a 12 per cent bonus
convertible into a day off every two weeks. This would involve paying a
12 per cent bonus to all employees with a full-time position or a full-time assignment. This premium could gradually be
converted into a day off in order to reach a two-week period of nine
days worked instead of 10, where full-time employees could benefit
from a minimum of two consecutive days off per week, as is the case for many people
in society. Currently full-time people work 10 days in two weeks, work
every other weekend, don't get two days off in a row in one of the
weeks, work overtime either voluntarily or under great pressure
or by outright force, are often not entitled to statutory leave. It
becomes unbearable. We see our proposal as a way to begin to establish
regular schedules to improve working conditions and attract full-time
care professionals. Full time workers must also be guaranteed their statutory vacations. To significantly reduce mandatory
overtime remains one of our main demands. All care professionals who
work part-time should have the opportunity to become full-time
employees in a stable full-time position. For us,
valuing full-time positions is a way of valuing the nurse
who is willing to commit to full-time status. We believe that it is the
beginning of a solution to end precarious working conditions in the
health care system.
This article was published in
Number 63 - September 22, 2020
Article Link:
The Need for Immediate Improvements in Working Conditions - Interview, Denis Cloutier
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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