Nurses union accepts mediator recommendation, funding allocated for Outaouais

Nurses union accepts mediator recommendation, funding allocated for Outaouais

After more than 500 days without a collective agreement, the union representing Quebec’s nurses as well as other health professionals (FIQ) announced last week that their membership had voted to accept a mediator’s recommendation. The turnout among the FIQ’s roughly 80,000 members was 75%, with 66.3% voting in favour. The provincial government and the FIQ can now move  forward with the drafting of their new collective agreement.

One of the primary conflict points in the negotiations was the government’s desire to be able to move nurses between different health care facilities in a region. The mediator’s recommendations were for a 40 km limit on transfers. In a French-language interview with CHIP 101.9, the FIQ-SPSO President, Karine D’Auteuil went over the details of the agreement.

The new agreement will include a 17.5% salary increase over five years, and D’Auteuil explained that for the first time, there was a clause in the agreement recognizing the special status of the Outaouais, which includes some extra funding.

The full (French-language) interview with D’Auteuil is available here.