(Montreal) The Administrative Labor Court (TAT) has ruled that the FIQ Union of Nurses of the Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec must stop its leverage, which includes the threat of dismissal at the nursing home staff.
Posted at 9:32pm
In her decision on Saturday, Judge Myriam Bédard ordered the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) to “stop encouraging and encouraging its members to resign en bloc.”
It bans workers from resigning as part of these mobilization efforts and requires them to withdraw resignations submitted in connection with pressure tactics.
The court concluded that these actions deprive or could deprive the public of a service to which they are entitled.
The CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec recently announced forced changes to the working hours of nursing staff. This would include being forced to work certain weekends.
“According to the employer, these measures are intended to relieve the burden on the staff who provide the continuous care and to reduce the use of mandatory overtime,” says a document from the court.
Following this announcement by the CUSSS, the staff acted. He stopped entering computer data into the patient chart. In particular, this information would make it possible to identify the number of patients, the reasons for consultations, the level of alternative care or the management of patient churn. This has the consequence of “falsifying ongoing audits or even delaying the release of hospital beds. »
The administrative labor court has ruled that employees must immediately stop entering certain data into the systems as this will affect the quality of service to which patients are entitled.
In response to the employer’s requirements, the FIQ presented its action plan at a special meeting last week. The union announced to the CUSSS that its members intend to resign en bloc if they do not back down.
The FIQ planned to submit the resignations on February 27 if it managed to consolidate 500 signed letters.
Before the court, the union argued that terminating workers was a right to privacy protected by charters of rights and freedoms. He argued that individual termination was a matter of privacy and could not be prohibited.
However, Judge Bédard did not accept these arguments as the process was more like a “disguised strike”.
Although the resignation letters are “signed by each of the employees who comply with this concerted action, the resignations are not individual in the purported sense, deriving their desired effect from being given en bloc, massively. »
The court orders members of the FIQ to “carry out their normal work until the agreements are renewed”. The employee collective agreement expires on March 31, 2023.