FIQ (Fédération Interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec)

The collective agreement will be for 5 years, from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2028.

Salary retroactivity, applicable as of April 1, 2023, will be paid after the collective agreement goes into effect and this date will be determined after the members adopt the agreement.

One of the FIQ’s repeated demands in the last rounds of negotiations was to obtain a 5^th week of annual leave more quickly, and we succeeded in getting it! Now, the quantum of annual vacation will be increased as of the 15^th year to obtain a 5^th full week of vacation after 19 years of service (instead of 25 years). This addition will exist as of summer 2024. It’s a mark of recognition for the work that’s been done, which also ensures greater equity with healthcare professionals elsewhere in Canada.

At each round of negotiations, the government asks for major setbacks on pensions (on amounts, minimum age, access to pensions). The work at the bargaining table and the mobilization of the members led the government to abandon several unacceptable demands

The Law permits contributing to a pension plan and, hence increase her future annuity until age 71, which RREGOP didn’t allow. This REGOP. This incongruity will be corrected in our next work contract, raising the maximum age for participation in the RREGOP from age 69 to age 71.

And employees who want to continue working at the end of their gradual retirement agreement will be able to extend it for up to 5 to 7 years).

The recognition and respect of family life are union struggles closely linked to the values of the FIQ, an organization made up of nearly 90% women. At some point in their career, most members are likely to take maternity or parental leave.

Now, pregnant employees will have access to 5 days (can be split up) for medical appointments linked to their pregnancy. Moreover, adjustments were made to the conditions for a paternity or adoption leave to facilitate access.

In recent years, the cost of living has risen, as has the cost of insurance. The Employer’s annual contribution to the basic health insurance plan will be increased by $150 for a participant insured alone, and by $300 for a participant insured for herself and her dependents. It’s an average increase of 72% of the Employer’s contribution.

The table below presents the new premium structure that has been agreed.

The setting premiums (critical care, specific critical care, continuous residential assistance (CRA), severe behaviour disorders (SBD) and psychiatry) were reviewed, as well as the inconvenience premium (evening, night, weekend).

A full-time employee, with an organization of work time that changes her number of workdays, will also have access to the 70-hour and more level.

Note that for the purposes of eligibility for the various premium levels, paid hours are taken into account, including authorized absences.

In the last collective agreement, part-time employees who offered and respected a 16/28 to 18/28 availability received the enhanced evening or night premium. Now, if employees work more than 42 hours, but less than 70 hours, they will receive the premium set out in level 2. A provincial committee will be set up in the 60 days after the collective agreement goes into effect. Its mandate will be to identify the problems linked to the application of evening and night premiums and to make recommendations.

The orientation and training premium for respiratory therapists will go from 2% to 5%.

A premium and enhanced premium are granted for the hours actually worked in a CHSLD. Since January 2023, it has also been paid in seniors’ homes and alternative housing. This measure is already applied, because there was an agreement during the negotiations to make the premium accessible more quickly in seniors’ homes and alternative housing

In centres of activities open 7 days a week and in centres of activities where the specific critical care premium set out in clause 9.06 of the collective agreement applies (for example, the operating room (including the recovery room) and haemodynamics), employees with a university degree will be paid their overtime after the regular workday and regular workweek (37.5 h).

During the last round of negotiations, the government established a single salary for the beneficiary attendants. The PABs therefore have a fixed salary throughput their career.

By proceeding this way, the starting salary for PABs is higher than the starting salary of respiratory therapists (echelon 1), licensed practical nurses and licensed practical nurse team leaders (echelons 1 and 2). To redress this imbalance, these employees will receive a lump sum equivalent to the salary difference. Their starting salary will therefore be adjusted accordingly.

Now, it will be possible to take 6 of the 9.6 sick days for personal reasons with a prior notice of 24 h to the Employer. This addition will improve work-personal life balance.

On-call is well known in care settings, especially in the operating rooms. In recent years, however, it has gained ground in a number of other care units, as employers use it to meet manpower needs. However, on-call should not be a substitute to hiring or to filling positions.

Moreover, on-call from home must be considered in the same way: as work time.

Therefore, the agreement sets out:

• A minimum remuneration of one hour for an intervention outside the institution (instead of for the time actually dedicated to an intervention)
• The Employer may not use on-call to fill a replacement or work overload.

For many years, healthcare professionals have been demanding that their permit to practice is reimbursed. A first step has been taken for the nurses, licensed practical nurses and respiratory therapists. The Employer will reimburse 50% of the permit to practice to the members of the OIIQ, OIIAQ and OPIQ, up to an annual maximum of $400, for employees incumbents of full-time positions. As soon as the process for integrating clinical perfusionists into a professional order is completed, this measure will also apply to them.

For several years, the FIQ has waged a battle to implement safe healthcare professional-to-patient ratios.

• In the 2016-2020 collective agreement, the parties agreed to study the pertinence and feasibility of the ratios by setting up pilot projects.
• In 2018, sixteen (16) pilot projects were implemented in different regions of Québec.

Although the evaluation of the pilot projects was positive, almost no ratio was maintained. Since then, the Federation has continued the battle, when the government’s vision was rather against setting up ratios.

In this context, the gain obtained is all the more significant, as we have reached an agreement to lay the foundations for the implementation of ratios. The parties have given themselves 5 years to evaluate workforce needs (PMO), identify the measures necessary for attracting more healthcare professionals to the network and file a final report and recommend the deployment of ratios to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

Self-scheduling will allow healthcare professionals to have better control over their schedule. For self-scheduling to be implemented in a centre of activities, the majority of the employees on it must agree.  At the same time, if the majority of employee want to end it, they can. Certain conditions must be decided collectively (example: length of the schedule, functioning for granting assignments and overtime, conditions for drawing up and modifying the schedule) while other are individual choices (example: length of the regular day, number of consecutive days and exchange of shifts). The basis of the self-scheduling agreement is volunteers. In all cases, an employee can demand that the constituent parts of her position set out in the local provisions are respected.

While the healthcare professionals’ workload is significant all the time certain critical periods are well known. This is the case for the summer and holiday period. Outbreaks, the flu virus and vacations happen every year. Compensation will now be paid to recognize the healthcare professionals’ sustained efforts during these periods:

Every year, from June 15 to September 15 and from December 15 to January 15, employees will receive a 5% premium for hours worked and a 10% premium for hours worked as overtime.

Since the  pandemic, the waiting lists for surgery have continued to grow. The participation of healthcare professionals is essential in the government’s desire to reduce waiting lists of more than one year to an acceptable level. In this respect, they are allocating a $40 million budget envelope to establish incentive measures, jointly with the FIQ. A joint committee will agree on measures to reduce the more than one year waiting lists for surgery. A joint committee will agree on the measures to put in place and they should go into effect in October 2024.

In these negotiations, the government wanted to obtain more flexibility from the healthcare professionals. The agreement limits the employers’ proposals to a minimum. In the context of Santé Québec being created, all the local matters of the collective agreements in effect will be renegotiated and harmonized in a few months. To reach an agreement, it was agreed to immediately review the concept of centre  of activities. The Federation made sure to provide the framework necessary for nursing and cardio-respiratory care expertise and the need to train, guide and maintain skills in a new centre of activities, if applicable.

Note that the new definition now applies in all institutions and modifies that set out in the local provisions of the collective agreement.

• A set of activities constituting a distinct entity within the meaning of the institution’s organizational structure which takes into account, in particular, the care and services to be provided to users, as determined by the Employer.
• The Employer may create centres of activities on more than one facility if this promotes better organization of care and services or increases accessibility to care and services or if the specific nature of the care and services provided in a centre of activities justifies it.
• When a centre of activities is newly created or when there is a merger of centres of activities, the Employer undertakes to provide employees with orientation, training and to keep their knowledge and skills up to date for all of its activities.
• In addition to the foregoing, when a newly created centre of activities or a merger of centres of activities involving the delivery of care and services of a different nature takes place, the orientation and training of employees in all of these activities is a prerequisite to assignment.

By integrating this new definition of centre of activities, the employees’ home base should be protected. It will now be stipulated that the home base is a constituent part of a position. To modify it, the employer must give a 30-day prior notice. If the new home base is more than 35 km from her original home base or her residence (or more than 25 km in the Montréal metropolitan area), the employee may choose to bump or accept the modification.

In turn

Voluntary overtime will be offered in turn, to full-time employees and part-time employees who offer and respect full-time availability. Then, the part-time employees can make their choices.

Double time

Given the state of the network, overtime is often unavoidable. It is essential to compensate for this inconvenience better. For the first time, an openness on double time was obtained. Hence, double time will be paid for all complete shifts worked as overtime on weekends in 24/7 centres of activities, for an employee who has completed her regular workweek and who has respected her schedule 7 before and 7 days after this overtime shift.

Moreover, as of the 16^th overtime shift, the employee may ask to be paid at time and a half and accumulate 0.5 days of leave per shift (by overtime worked on weekends),up to a maximum of  5 days a year. As such, she will have a choice between an additional remuneration or time.

The abusive use of mandatory overtime (MOT) has been widespread for many years.

A number of grievance arbitration decisions have begun to regulate the employer’s use of MOT.

As part of these negotiations, the FIQ had a mandate to regulaye a framework for MOT in light of these decisions and to settle the almost 30,000 individual and collective grievances filed.  

A statement of principle will be in the collective agreement and an amount of $7 million will be paid to the FIQ. The working committee on MOT at the Federation will ensure the best way how to distribute the money among the members who filed grievances before March 19, 2024.

STATEMENT:  The Employer takes the means to avoid using mandatory overtime. Mandatory overtime can only be required in the emergency and exceptional situations that occur.  

A long-standing irritant for healthcare professionals in the network is losing their seniority when they change institutions.  As part of these negotiations, it was agreed to establish a single process for recognizing lost seniority* for FIQ members when they change institutions in the RSSS as long as no more than one (1) year has elapsed between the two employment relationships.

On the other hand, a healthcare professional working in an employment agency who wants to return to the network will be able to have her seniority recognized from March 13, 2020 until the date of her hiring in the RSSS, up to a maximum of 6 months after the creation of Santé Québec.

For several years now, the FIQ has been demanding an end to using independent labour (IL) in the health network and prioritizing its members in the assignment of shifts, at straight time and as overtime. This is now included in the agreement.

* Details of the process will be presented at the general assemblies

In June 2023, an agreement was reached between the FIQ and the government to improve the working conditions of class 1 employees working in Québec’s Far North. The improvements for Nunavik are already applied. An improved premium, adding trips out and making the leave without pay to work in a northern institution more accessible are part of the improvements. The agreement for Nunavik went into effect in June 2023 and will now go into effect for James Bay at the same time as the new collective agreement.

An agreement grating special status to the Outaouais region has existed since 2007. It is  renegotiated at the same time as the collective agreement. It includes attraction and retention measures for employees as regards the manpower issues caused by the proximity  to Ontario. For the 2023-2028 collective agreement, in addition to renewing the amounts already invested, an additional amount of one million dollars per year has been added.

An agreement was also reached on introducing long-term measures to attract and retain employees for the region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue. An amount of three million dollars per year is provided. The parties will agree of the specific measures after the tentative agreement is adopted.

A healthcare professional who wants to work in another facility of her institution or in another institution will receive a financial compensation in addition to the travel allowances already provided. This mobility is 100% voluntary.

It will now apply regardless of the reason.

Financial compensation:

• Intra-institution: $50/day: between 20 and 100 km or a facility not accessible by road; $100/day: if more than 100 km
• Inter-institution: $50/day: between 20 and 100 km; $100/day: if more than 100 km.

Recognizing the special characteristics of the SNPs’ work and the specificity of their job title was a major demand for the specialized nurse practitioners. To achieve this, it was necessary to establish a clear communication channel with the Employer and this will be the case with the Provincial Task and Organization of Work Committee, which, as part of their mandate, address the task and organization of work and specificity of the SNPs’ situation.

Employees will now have voluntary access to a weekend schedule in a centre of activities where services are provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  By accepting this schedule for at least 6 months, the employee will work 12-hour shifts from Friday to Monday and will receive a 16% premium if she works all weekends.

It is now possible to agree on an organization of work time as a group and individually with her manager. Moreover, an atypical schedule can include a number of hours higher than the regular workday. This measure will allow employees more choices in organization of work time who want it.

The Committee on Care is a major tool for the unions and members to address organization of work and care issues with the Employer. One of the main issues is often access to the documents for analyzing the workload on a given care unit. A statement of principles is now added so that this will no longer be the case n the future:

The Employer will be obliged to provide the documents and information necessary for quickly and diligently holding a committee on care.

The collective agreement already stipulates a list of recognized nursing certificates for nurses (Appendix 10). Now, licensed practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists can also use this list to have their postgraduate training recognized. The conditions for recognizing the additional education remain the same.

When the use of a vehicle is required to carry out the duties, for the position or assignment, the parking expenses are reimbursed at the home base

The working conditions stipulated for certain employees working in a penal setting (floating holidays) are now accessible to all healthcare professionals. The update of this working condition will now be in a new appendix.

It will now be possible to take a leave with deferred remuneration of 3, 4 or 5 months to continue studying full time.

Upgrading of positions to full-time positions

From now on, a part-time employee may request that her position be upgraded to full-time, in the same centre of activities and on the same shift, at any time.  

Additional premiums on evening and night shifts

Additional premiums are provided for part-time employees working evenings, nights or on rotation. Adding these premiums and the regular premiums (level 1 in the premiums table) gives the same result as what is currently being applied. Because the premiums have been increased, the current additional premiums from now on are:

• Evening shift: 1% + 1% when a proportion of 70% of full-time positions is reached in 24/7 centres of activities in the institution
• Night shift: + 0.5% when a proportion of 70% of full-time positions is reached in 24/7 centres of activities in the institution
• 9/14 on evenings (24/7 centre of activities)

Access to a 9/14 schedule for a full-time employee on evenings is no longer dependent on an agreement between the local parties. It is now stipulated that an employee may, after agreement with the Employer, have this organization of work and have a paid day off per 14-day period in the following manner and order:

• Stat holidays reduced to 9 days and sick days to 3 days (12 days)
• Conversion of part of the evening premium into paid time off (12 days)

As the 2021-2023 collective agreement stipulated for an employee promoted to an assistant-head-nurse, assistant to the immediate superior, nurse clinician assistant-head-nurse or nurse clinician assistant to the immediate superior position, the employee promoted to nurse in a northern clinic and clinical perfusionists assistant to the immediate superior will receive in her new job title, the salary set out for the echelon of the job title she is leaving.

Les parties ont convenu de créer le nouveau titre d’emploi d’assistante du supérieur immédiat perfusionniste clinique dans les 30 jours de la signature de la convention collective. Actuellement, les perfusionnistes cliniques qui occupent les fonctions d’assistante reçoivent une prime. Une fois intégrée dans leur nouveau titre d’emploi, la prime sera abolie et les ASI perfusionnistes cliniques recevront le salaire applicable au rangement 25.

L’entente engage la Fédération à ne pas déposer de plainte dans l’exercice du maintien de l’équité salariale 2025, 2020 et 2030 (uniquement sur l’évaluation du titre d’emploi). De plus, si un changement dans l’évaluation d’emploi de perfusionniste clinique survient et entraîne un changement de rangement, il sera possible de rediscuter du rangement du titre d’emploi d’ASI perfusionniste clinique.

Ensure union leaves are maintained for a strong union life and to have real representation of the members in the transition to Santé Québec

LMRSST (Act to modernize the OHS regime): an inter-union committee will monitor the application of the legislative amendments set out in the Act to modernize the occupational health and safety regime (LMRSST). One of these amendments stipulates better monitoring of occupational health and safety in the care settings.

Parental rights: an inter-union committee is created to make writing the different texts on parental rights more inclusive.