(Montreal) Quebec will make a new offer for civil servants next Sunday.
Published at 1:41 p.m. Updated at 2:16 p.m
Lia Lévesque The Canadian Press
Treasury President Sonia LeBel made the announcement on Tuesday in a message on X, formerly called Twitter.
She says she is “more determined than ever to reach an agreement with union members in the public and parastatal sectors by the end of the year”.
The minister also stated that she would simultaneously announce what would happen to the bonuses paid to thousands of public servants. Some of these bonuses were scheduled to end on March 31st and were extended until September 30th and then October 15th.
All of these bonuses are worth around 600 million, the minister said in an interview.
These are bonuses paid, for example, to nurses, psychologists, professionals or people who work with people housed in CHSLDs. These awards can amount to thousands of dollars for each affected worker.
On September 25, Minister LeBel committed to reducing her sectoral demands to five and called on unions to do the same, with the aim of reaching an agreement by the end of the year. She said that if the unions were serious about this measure, the bonuses would be maintained until December, when all collective agreements are renewed.
The common front takes note of this
The cross-union Common Front, which includes the CSQ, the CSN, the APTS and the FTQ, has indicated that it will not comment on this announcement for the time being. He would like to wait and see what Minister LeBel will present on October 29th before commenting on it.
The minister had already improved her offer on March 27th and, in particular, announced the extension of certain bonuses. However, the unions remained dissatisfied.
The Common Front has already adopted a strike order, 95% of which its members have accepted. He has not yet decided when he will exercise it.
As for salaries, Quebec has been offering a 9% salary increase over five years since December last year, as well as a lump sum payment of $1,000 in the first year. He adds a 2.5% amount reserved for “state priorities,” meaning his offer is worth 13% over five years.
The all-union Common Front is calling for a three-year contract, meaning the consumer price index plus a 2% increase for the first year – or $100 a week, whichever formula is most beneficial to workers – and then the consumer price index plus 3% for the second year and the CPI plus 4% for the third year.