June 9, 2016

Although a tentative agreement was reached between the FIQ and the government of Quebec last December regarding the new collective agreement, the difficult task remained of finalizing the texts in order for them to respect the spirit of this agreement and for all parties in attendance to approve of them. Alas, this final step has now been achieved as, this past Tuesday, the FIQ proceeded to ratify the new collective agreement. This means that we are now the first union organization in the healthcare network to have finished writing the texts for the sectoral and intersectoral agreements of December 5 and 21, 2015.

The provisions of this new collective agreement will come into effect on July 10, 2016, and our 66,000 thousand members will quickly see their working conditions improve(click here for more information)

With the changes in ranking that we obtained, our members’ salary increases could go as high as 14% by the end of the collective agreement, not including the enhancement and creation of premiums. Throughout this entire process, we fought tooth and nail to improve the working conditions of healthcare professionals, but also to ensure safer and higher quality care for the entire population of Quebec, and we are glad to say that it worked. Furthermore, our members will begin to receive their new salaries and premiums within 45 days of June 7, 2016, as well as any retroactive pay within 90 days of this date.

Over the next few months, we will prioritize the implementation of the pilot projects to establish healthcare professional-to-patient ratios. These projects will allow us to effectively demonstrate that ratios have a direct impact on workload and the safety of care. They will allow us to improve the accessibility to care while simultaneously reducing the workload for nurses and licensed practical nurses.

Obtaining this new collective agreement was a long-winded endeavor. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank the negotiating team, who truly gave their all during this adventure. I would also like to thank all of our union reps for their mobilization and availability for all the times we called a Special Federal Council to discuss the state of the negotiations. Finally, I want to thank all of our FIQ members, who truly have their patients’ needs at heart and who were our source of inspiration throughout this entire negotiation.

Go to this page to learn more about the entry into force of the new collective agreement.