Quebec health workers still waiting for backpay from government

Quebec health-care workers say they’re still waiting for backpay from the Legault government.

Unionized health workers held a rally in front of Montreal’s Notre-Dame Hospital Thursday to demand retroactive pay owed to thousands of employees.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Fanny Demontigny, president of Provincial Council for Social Affairs (CPAS).

“The payment should have been done on the 31st of October. Right now, we’re still waiting for it. Apparently, the government said it’s going to go till January 2025, but for us it’s unacceptable. We want to it right now.”

Nine months after their agreement with the government was reached, workers want what they are owned before the new year. They say the delay reflects the Legault government’s lack of rigor and respect for jobs primarily done by women.

“So we know that it’s a historic thing that we are not paid as much as men. So, every five years we have to do an ‘exercice de maintien’ to look at all those all-hour jobs and see if there’s equity. So that exercise has been done in 2010, 2015, and 2020, and soon 2025,” said Sonia Bureau, vice-president of equity at the Syndicat Canadien de la Fonction Publique (SCFP).

Santé Québec told CityNews that addressing the backpay issue is a priority, and they are working closely with payroll providers to resolve it as quickly as possible. They emphasized that no employee would face a loss of income due to payment delays.

Last December, CPAS-SCFP and the Quebec Service Employees Union (SQEES-FTQ) reached an agreement with the government to extend the standard six-month delay.

This extension was granted to allow sufficient time for the completion of calculations for thousands of employees in category 3, which includes office staff, technicians, and administration professionals. But they are still waiting.

“At that time, we gave nine months because we knew that it was for 14 years of details to add up. So, we knew it would be longer to calculate. So, nine months, now the nine months have passed and now the further date is, we don’t know, somewhere in 2025,” said Bureau.

“We know that it is very complicated, but our members know exactly for how long they’re waiting for that amount, and we’re here right now because everybody’s angry,” added SCFP president Patrick Gloutney.

Health workers held a similar protest in Québec City on Thursday. They are urging the Legault government to act fast.

“We want the government to sit down right away and understand what’s the problem and be able to give us a date as soon as possible, to make sure the payments are going to come and especially before Christmas,” said Demontigny.