It’s unacceptable that nurses have been barred from the 811 recruitment process because they don’t speak English and that another has been disciplined for eating a peanut butter “toast,” according to Health Minister Christian Dubé, who promises to take action.
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“We need all the nurses who offer themselves,” said Christian Dubé when he entered the blue salon on Tuesday.
The Minister of Health responded to the fact that two nurses who wanted to join the health infoline had their applications rejected because they did not speak English well enough.
“There was a little misunderstanding, let me put it that way. That is not acceptable (…), he said. I asked the CEO to review the executive’s decision or the person who made the decision. It is reversed and these people are taken into account. We spoke on the phone a few minutes ago.
“I had the same reaction when I found out about the famous peanut butter toast,” added Mr. Dubé, who wants to make sure all managers in the healthcare network understand the need to be respectful of employees as we “need everyone” in the community current context.
“That must not happen,” he said.
Mr Dubé also assured that “measures will be taken” in the coming days when all the individuals concerned will have been questioned.
Health and Elderly Minister Sonia Bélanger reiterated on Tuesday that she thought it was “inadmissible” for a nurse working in a CHSLD to be suspended for eating a “toast”.
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Ms Bélanger, herself a former health network manager, said she had never suspended an employee for this reason. The Minister believes that this is a disproportionate sanction in relation to the offence.
“Normally in management there is a gradation of measures. When disciplinary action is to be taken, we usually proceed with verbal notices and can move on to more important situations after that,” he explained, before recalling that the nurse was hit and that he was offered a formal apology.
As the working conditions of the nurses are already difficult, such decisions are not advisable, says Solidarity MP Vincent Marissal.
“It makes no sense. We have enough problems attracting and keeping our people. Also, if every time the slightest thing goes beyond that — a peanut butter toast, the person isn’t bilingual — we sanction them and we don’t take them, that doesn’t work,” he said Tuesday.
“I think it’s time that the ministry and the minister put their eyes back on the holes and that we stop disgusting these people, it’s quite difficult to hold them back,” he added.