According to François Legault, the new collective agreements will be a “serious blow” to improving the working conditions of staff in the education sector. However, this progress will not come without cost, said the Prime Minister, who wanted to warn Quebecers: the next budget will be “largely in deficit”. However, he clarified that this deficit would not lead to austerity measures, but mentioned a postponement of achieving a balanced budget.
“This decision to invest heavily in public services will have financial consequences,” Legault stressed at a press conference on Sunday. He says he accepts this choice because “education is the best individual investment, but also the best collective investment we can make.”
The prime minister stopped short of giving details about the size of the coming deficit, saying details would be set out in the next budget, due next month. At the end of January, Mr. Legault spoke about the impact of larger-than-expected increases in public sector salaries on the budget and on his goal of restoring budget balance in the 2027-2028 fiscal year.
“There is no question of cutting any services and there is no question of raising taxes,” said Mr. Legault, mentioning in passing “questioning the length of time it will take to find the “balanced budget.” The Prime Minister said he was happy with this option and noted that it was a “responsible” decision under the circumstances.
Salary increases and new permanent positions
Together with the President of the Ministry of Finance, Sonia LeBel, and the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, the Prime Minister presented the details of the agreements reached with the teachers.
At the end of the collective bargaining agreement, in five years, the salary range for teachers will be between $65,000 and $109,000 per year. The increases achieved vary between 18% and 27% depending on the level. Salary increases are also planned for school psychologists and special education teachers.
The government has committed to creating 5,000 apprenticeships and 4,000 full-time classroom teaching positions. Daycare teachers receive the status of class assistants and their working hours are increased from 20 to 35 hours per week; Your salary will therefore increase from $27,000 to $56,000. According to Minister Drainville, there will therefore be staff supporting teachers in more than 14,000 primary school classes, which is about half of the classes in the province.
“The amounts that were advanced [dans ces ententes] In return for this flexibility we received,” explained Sonia LeBel. Although she acknowledges that negotiations “do not solve everything,” she believes she has “achieved a balance that allows us to improve services for students.”
The end of the “psychodrama”
In order to put an end to the “psychodrama” before the start of the school year, in which classes are left without teachers on the eve of the school year, the procedure for assigning teachers to a class was introduced forward until August 8. This allows the state to recognize needs earlier and try to satisfy them. That means: “We can’t do that [pourvoir] All positions, for the simple reason [qu’on] Lack of teachers,” said Bernard Drainville.
The new collective agreements also allow interns to take on substitute work, give teachers the opportunity to carry out certain tasks remotely and release them from taking care of breaks so that they can devote themselves to looking after students.
The negotiated measures also provide for financial incentives for teachers who work overtime on a voluntary basis, as well as support and mentoring for young teachers by retired teachers.
Give the runner a chance
“I firmly believe that this congress can help us attract new talent to the education professions,” believes Bernard Drainville.
How to explain the reluctance of some teachers to support the agreements, since four of the nine unions affiliated to the Autonomous Education Union voted against it and the Federation of Teaching Unions voted in favor with 60%? According to the Education Minister, this is partly due to very, even too high expectations.
“Let us give this agreement a chance to take shape in the daily lives of teachers and school staff,” said Bernard Drainville. “I think that over time this dissatisfaction will partly be resolved because people will actually experience the improvements that we have negotiated with the unions. »
The unions regret Legault's comments
The president of the Federation of Education Trade Unions, Josée Scalabrini, was asked to comment on Mr Legault's comments and regretted that the government was “trying to do the disgusting thing”. [d’un déficit] to education and health workers. Certain trade union committees have not yet commented on the currency issues, she says.
Ms Scalabrini now wants the government to approach unions to “find solutions for the whole system”, particularly with regard to “three-speed schools”.
The same applies to the president of the Autonomous Education Federation, Mélanie Hubert. “It is not pleasing to me to shift the burden of the deficit onto education staff by suggesting that these negotiations were expensive,” she said, noting in passing the sacrifices of thousands of teachers who went on strike and were not paid for weeks.
Although she acknowledged the progress in the agreements, including with regard to class composition and teleworking, Ms. Hubert reiterated that there was still “a lot of work to be done” and would have liked the Minister of Education to be more open to discussing the future of the school system.
The health negotiations continue
In early February, the Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec (FIQ), which represents 80,000 nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, said it was “very far” from reaching an agreement in principle with Quebec.
The main point of contention remained the flexibility required by Quebec. The FIQ argued that the government wants to impose the compulsory transfer of certain workers from one job to another, while the government reiterated that these transfers would be on a voluntary basis.
In a press release issued on Sunday, the FIQ said it had been “rejected by the government's recent proposals, [qui] Salary increases appear to be associated with a deterioration in the quality of care provided to the population. “It is shameful to place the issues in this way,” said the union’s president, Julie Bouchard.
As negotiations continue, Sonia LeBel believes she can get this sorted out “pretty quickly.” “We will pursue the same goal with the FIQ [que celui] that we had with all the other unions”, that is, to reach an agreement that improves the working conditions of staff while at the same time giving the government more flexibility in its administration.