The union representing Urgences-Santé Paramédicos, which covers the Montreal and Laval territories, will apply pressure tactics on Monday to protest against working conditions it considers unacceptable.
“On Monday, there will be the slogan of simply allowing paramedics who are already exhausted from COVID, but especially from being overworked, to go eat,” said Claude Lamarche, interim president of the S.yindicate du Préhospitalier affiliated with the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux. (SP-CSN)
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Lamarche clarified that the pressure tactics will not affect the general population because a complete meal break will not be allowed because the paramedics must always provide service to the population.
“It will still allow a slightly longer meal break than the employer mandates, which means half an hour,” Lamarche said.
According to him, these lunch breaks are often reduced, canceled or have to be taken in a traffic jam, in an ambulance that has just transported a patient and has not been cleaned and disinfected.
“There is no paramedic who refuses to make a call even if he has been waiting for three hours for his lunch break, for example, to go help a child. (…) There is no paramedic who complains ”when it comes to life or death, she said.
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Urgences-Santé spokesman Stéphane Smith called on the ministry to find solutions to the heavy workload caused by staff shortages.
Workers are “exhausted,” Lamarche said.
“People are jumping ship right now. … It is very worrying”.
He criticized the use of compulsory overtime instead of using it only in exceptional cases.
This creates a vicious cycle, he says, as workers “become less and less available (for extra shifts) to take days off.”
He also said paramedics manage “less than 50 percent of the workforce on night shifts.”
“We need support, we need support,” Lamarche said.
Smith confirmed that this ratio has been reached several times, especially on weekend nights, and that managers who have the necessary training should cover shifts in the field.
“In the last year, there have been almost no hires, it’s not an easy thing,” Smith said.
“The demand is high, with a reduced number of employees. There are consequences for the employees who are there now.”
Smith placed part of the blame for the recruitment difficulties on the SP-CSN.
One of the pressure tactics used during the negotiations for the renewal of the collective agreement last year was not to hire any apprentices.
The union, for its part, argued that many other employers offered internships, so students should not have had a hard time getting their diplomas.
The union calls for “incentive measures”, in particular monetary measures, to attract labor or make overtime attractive.
Compared to the private sector serving other regions, “we are not competitive in the market,” Lamarche said.
Urgences-Santé has not wanted to comment on this statement, since there is an agreement in principle that has not yet been signed or made public.
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For his part, Smith wants paramedics to be allowed to “send patients to places other than the emergency room” when it is not necessary and another health service could better serve their needs.
Right now, “paramedics have no choice but to offer a ride to all patients, regardless of the situation,” which can lead to unnecessary wait times, Smith said.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced last month that his ministry “will authorize, in accordance with the vision of the Health Plan, the implementation of regulatory paramedicine that aims to allow, in close collaboration with other professionals, to refer to the patient to the right care and the right professional instead of systematically transporting them to the emergency room.”
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