Revenu Quebec professionals set for two-day walkout
The Union of Quebec Government Professionals' (SPGQ) is denouncing what it calls the lack of a mandate at the bargaining table to reach an agreement on the monetary conditions of the 4,600 professionals at Revenu Québec.
“Under these circumstances,” a union communiqué reads, “the bargaining committee members consider it appropriate to use the strike mandate voted for on May 6, 2016 and, therefore, Revenu Québec’s professional staff will go on strike on August 11 from midnight until 11:59, August 12.”
"After 3 years of negotiations, the Revenu Québec bargaining team still does not have the necessary mandates to reach an agreement with the 4,600 SPGQ member professionals at Revenu Québec,” said union president Richard Perron. ”It's a question of negotiating Revenu Québec's first collective agreement since it was transformed into an agency in 2011.
"The fine words of 2011 did not materialize. By offering salary increases still considered insufficient by our delegates, the government cannot even think of settling this negotiation. That is why Revenu Québec decided to initiate pressure tactics," Perron said.
While professional staff has seen its salaries stagnate for several years, Revenu Québec executives saw their average salary jump 15.3 per cent between 2012 and 2015 alone.
"Promises of better terms seem only to apply to executives,” Perron concluded. ”Revenu Québec must ensure the durability of its expertise by offering its professional members more favorable salary conditions. This is what our representatives demand,"