Quebec’s public sector hiring freeze challenged in court

The hiring freeze in the public sector is before the court on Tuesday, as the CSQ’s challenge to this matter begins to be heard.

The Centrale des syndicats du Québec and its federations have filed complaints against Quebec for obstruction of union activities.

They argue that the hiring freeze, which has been in effect since Nov. 1 for those who do not provide services directly to students, violates several provisions of the collective agreements recently negotiated with Quebec.

These provisions provided greater job stability or employment prospects for precariously employed staff. Some clauses affected temporary workers hired for increased workload, for example, or allowed workers to access a regular contract after a certain period of time.

With this hiring freeze, ministers have granted themselves decision-making authority over the application of these clauses in the collective agreements. They can change the terms and application of collective agreements unilaterally, argues the CSQ.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews