Quebec nurses threaten to stop working overtime as talks continue for new contract

“Health-care professionals, who have been sounding the alarm for months, will not be silenced by empty promises and manoeuvres disconnected from reality.”

The union says the government’s latest offer, made on Thursday, is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors.”

Negotiations are stuck around the government’s demand that nurses, on a voluntary basis, be free to move from one health-care facility to another to address needs in the system where they arise.

But the FIQ says the measure would disregard nurses’ expertise and treat them like interchangeable pawns. The union says the government’s latest proposal demands even more flexibility from its members on the issue of transfers.

Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel rejected the union’s interpretation of the government’s offer.

“It is false to say that the government wants to increase travel. It is irresponsible to scare the population, when our goal is to provide better care for them with better organization of work in hospitals,” LeBel wrote Friday on her X account. “And this, always with adequate training and on a voluntary basis.”

“We must continue to negotiate to reach an agreement,” LeBel added. “Our priority is the patient.”

Quebec’s order of nurses has expressed concern about the consequences of transferring nurses around the health-care system.

Luc Mathieu, president of the order, wrote on Facebook, “we must start from the premise that nurses are not interchangeable.”

Transfers could work under certain circumstances, he said, like when a nurse in a long-term care home moves to a long-term care unit of a health facility. But a nurse in a seniors home can’t be transferred to an intensive care unit, he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Quebec nurses threaten to stop working overtime as talks continue for new contract

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