Home-care workers protest privatization of services

The unions representing auxiliary home-care workers in the health network filed a series of grievances Sunday demanding the immediate suspension of a contract awarded to a private personnel agency that would siphon 1.3 million hours of home support work away from the public sector.

In a communiqué released Sunday, the CSN affiliated Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN) reiterated that it is strongly opposed to “any privatization of health and social services."

In recent negotiations, the union has achieved gains such as strengthening the provisions of collective agreements "against outsourcing, privatization and the use of labor agencies". The union argues that, under these agreements, employers are normally obliged to offer employees the opportunity to present a public alternative to any privatization project. They also have to provide unions with all the information they need to present such an alternative.

The union says that privatizing the provision of home support services to personnel agencies is a bad move and argues that public sector home-care assistants play a critical role, and are specifically trained to play the role

The union says auxiliaries are the eyes and ears of interdisciplinary teams in Quebec health facilities, as it is they who are responsible to seeing patients every day in their home environments. Replacing them with minimum wage employees who would have no protection or training, it says, would be a detriment to the community.

In Quebec, the FSSS-CSN represents some 110,000 members, both in the public and private sectors. It is one of the largest health, social services, and child care labor organizations.