The government is engaged in delicate negotiations with teachers and civil servants and is now seeing administrative judges issue an ultimatum and demand significant pay increases. They are threatening to turn to the courts to protect their judicial independence and are talking about pressure tactics.
Published at 1:57 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
What there is to know
- The 400 administrative judges give Quebec an ultimatum to resume negotiations.
- Judges are threatening to sue the government to protect their judicial independence.
- They are demanding a special negotiation regime to determine their remuneration.
“We understand that the reform that has been promised several times will not take place […] “The patience of our members has now reached its peak,” said the representatives of the administrative judges angrily in a letter that was available to La Presse and was sent to the government’s chief negotiator on November 7, 2023. The letter is signed by the presidents of the four associations of administrative judges.
Less well-known than the judges of the Court of Quebec or the Superior Court, the 400 administrative judges from 16 organizations and courts hear tens of thousands of individual cases each year, whether on issues of housing, work or transportation, agricultural protection or access to information.
However, despite their important role, administrative judges receive little more than half the salary of a Quebec court judge ($169,500 compared to $310,000). This is roughly equivalent to the salary of an experienced prosecutor at the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).
They have no right to arbitration or strike and are not subject to labor law.
For this reason, administrative law judges are demanding a hearing system tailored to their realities, like common law judges and DPCP prosecutors, as well as a method for resolving disputes. Currently, their remuneration is only linked to the increases granted to the state executives by decree.
“It’s incompatible”
“If we do not have a bargaining system of this kind, we will have to negotiate our compensation with the government, while the main task of the administrative law judges is to decide disputes between the state and the litigants.” You cannot negotiate your terms with a party that is everyone day is ahead of you. This is incompatible,” said Daniel Pelletier, president of the Quebec Conference of Administrative Judges and one of the signatories of the letter, in an interview.
In the letter, the administrative judges regret that the government did not present any “concrete proposals” this spring, despite around ten meetings of a joint committee set up last April.
This “exploratory committee” should make recommendations on the conditions of appointment and review the classification and remuneration of judges.
However, at the end of these meetings, Quebec invited the judges’ associations to return to discuss higher employment with the Secretariat. A proposal that was deemed “unacceptable” by the associations of administrative judges and then prepared to sue the government. However, her prosecutor, former Prime Minister Lucien Bouchard, convinced her to give the negotiations a “last chance”.
The administrative judges are giving the government until November 30th to resume negotiations and submit an offer in December. Otherwise, they want to take legal action to “recognize their right to organize and their right to recognize a system for determining their remuneration”.
“No further postponement will be granted beyond November 30th. We would like to point out that we are currently discussing the remuneration of our members for the period 2020 to 2023, while the entire public sector is discussing the working conditions of its members for the period 2023 to 2026. Our members will not accept any further postponement of these discussions,” the letter concludes.
The Treasury Department declined our interview request.
“Last spring, important work was carried out with members of administrative organizations. The Government of Quebec is currently working on this with all due seriousness and will provide feedback to the members of the governing bodies as soon as possible. However, due to the confidentiality of the discussions, we will have no further comment,” a spokesperson said via email.
* Conference of Administrative Judges of Quebec, Association of Administrative Judges of the Administrative Court of Labor, Association of Administrative Judges of the Administrative Court of Quebec and Association of Administrative Judges of the Administrative Court of Housing