Failure at SAAQclic ‘predictable’: union
Posted March 6, 2023 6:34 pm.
Last Updated March 7, 2023 10:12 am.
The union representing 2,200 employees of the Société de l’Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ) says it had warned managers that the new SAAQclic service was not ready, that training had been insufficient and that they would “hit the wall” if they did not break in more.
“It was something that was plannable, something that was predictable, something that our members had told their managers, their directors, saying ‘we’re not ready and then you’re going to hit the wall’. And that’s what’s happening today, unfortunately,” said Christian Daigle, general president of the SFPQ, in an interview Monday.
The Syndicat de la Fonction Publique et Parapublique du Québec (SFPQ), is a large union independent of the unions and represents 2,200 employees of the SAAQ.
“Who pays for this? It is the citizens of Quebec. And who pays for it? It’s the members I represent because they are the ones who receive the citizens and who are unfortunately peppered with these people,” Daigle says.
He says that his members at the SAAQ said that the training had been insufficient, that the system was not well broken in, and that it was not necessary to go so quickly.
He notes that the “shortcomings” of the computer system, for example, affect citizens who are online as much as employees behind the counter and its members are also frustrated.
“There are places where the police have had to show up to calm down citizens. In other places, we realize that there are people who take their break to go cry in the staff room, because they are at the end of their rope, because they want to help, they want to do it quickly, they want to make sure they give the best service possible. And they don’t have the tools sometimes and it’s the computer that crashes and doesn’t allow them to do what they should be doing,” summarizes Daigle.
As for the announced addition of 150 employees to meet the demand, Mr. Daigle specifies that it will be done gradually.
He reminds us that these employees will also have to be trained. He also points out that at the SAAQ, “we were already short-staffed in our various offices. It is not only in the health and education sectors where there is a lack of staff, he says.
– This article by Canadian Press was translated from French.
