Still without an agreement, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) believes that it and the government are still “too far apart” to hope for an end to their negotiations “in the coming days.”
Published at 4:32 p.m. Updated at 5:54 p.m
The union, which represents about 85,000 nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, called an arbitrator on Dec. 19 in hopes of resolving the impasse in its negotiations.
“In order to promote the continuation of a constructive and productive dialogue, the arbitrator recommends that the parties limit comments in public spaces as much as possible until January 15,” the FIQ said at the end of the day on Friday, adding that this is the The case accepted the arbitrator's suggestion.
“Therefore, all efforts will be put into the negotiations, which will be intensive and continued.” [la trêve médiatique permettra] to prevent them from being disturbed by inappropriate explanations,” she adds.
The union also announces that it will not hold any further strike days until January 15th.
In the past, the FIQ has expressed its opposition to Quebec's demands to include more “flexibility” in health workers' collective agreements. According to the union, this is a disguised way to transfer nursing staff between care units and health facilities based on employers' needs.
New proposal
In mid-December, Health Minister Christian Dubé reiterated that at least 500 non-urgent operations will be postponed per day of the FIQ strike, of which there have been at least eight so far.
On Thursday, the FIQ said it had submitted a “new proposal” to the Employers’ Party and was waiting for a response. This is the only association that has not concluded an agreement after Quebec after a major breakthrough at the negotiating tables in recent days.
This avalanche of agreements also led to a compromise on Thursday at the so-called “central” table where the salary parameters of the next collective agreements for public sector employees were negotiated.
However, like the Autonomous Federation for Education (FAE), the FIQ was not represented by the Common Front at the so-called “central” table and instead negotiated independently with the government over the salaries and working conditions of its members.