The fundamental rejection of the agreement by 59.38% of the unionized police officers of the Sûreté du Québec surprised more than one person.
• Also read: SQ police officers fundamentally reject the agreement
The agreement reached with the Quebec government provided for salary increases of 21% over five years.
For André Durocher, retired inspector of the SPVM, the union executive must justify the rejection of the agreement by the majority of members.
“We will have to explain it to the population. I’ve spoken to several police officers from the Sûreté du Québec, there are many who don’t understand why. Maybe they come to us with legitimate explanations,” he said in an interview on LCN.
Joël Lemay / QMI Agency
Does anyone among the members have expectations that are too high?
To answer the question, André Durocher compared the salaries of provincial police patrol officers with those of the SPVM.
A rank-and-file patrolman with no bonuses can earn $120,000 at the end of his contract, while his SPVM counterpart can make $112,000.
The starting salary at SPVM is $53,900, while that at SQ is $55,000.
“We don’t know if that’s the case [une question de salaire]. I think the government was clumsy in voting for a 30 percent rule. […]“But we say less for you,” he emphasizes, adding that negotiations with the public sector threaten to become difficult.
TVA News
The police officers’ demands beyond salary are numerous, but not always justified, says the retired inspector.
“There are members who sometimes have somewhat unrealistic expectations. Even people from the union told me that. What planet do these people live on at any given time? I 100% agree that our police officers should be paid well. They do important work in society, but the money doesn’t go to everyone’s ears,” he gives as an example in an interview with Frédérique Guay.
*Watch the full interview in the video above*