Quebec nurses set to vote on conciliator's proposal for new collective agreement

Members of Quebec's largest nurses' union are set to weigh in on a conciliator's recommendations which, if accepted, could become their new collective agreement.

The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) has about 80,000 members and represents nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists. Last year, it was among several unions representing hundreds of thousands of public sector workers involved in a large-scale labour dispute with the province that eventually shut down schools and delayed surgeries.

The FIQ is the only major union left without a collective agreement. It expired in March 2023.

Details of the proposal are available on the FIQ's website.

They include a total salary increase of 17.4 per cent between the time a potential deal is signed and its end in April 2028. Members would also earn a fifth week of vacation as of their 15th year of service. According to the FIQ's website, that fifth vacation week used to only kick in between year 17 and 18. 

Issues around staff retention and the possibility of moving nurses from one health-care facility to another to address staffing have been among the major sticking points in negotiations. The conciliator recommends that staff can't be forced to travel more than 40 kilometres when moved from one health-care setting to another.

The conciliator's set of recommendations is not an agreement-in-principle.

If it is eventually ratified by members, it would become the FIQ's new collective agreement. If it doesn't get accepted, both parties would have to resume negotiations.

Last spring, the two sides had reached an agreement-in-principle, but it was ultimately rejected by 61 per cent of the FIQ's members.