'It's over': Quebec nurses refuse mandatory overtime this weekend
CBC
Quebec's largest nursing union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), says health-care workers are beyond exhausted and the use of mandatory overtime to cover staffing shortages has to end.
The FIQ says that's why over 30,000 of its members in a dozen regions, including Montreal, are refusing to work extra hours this weekend.
On Friday, the union sent formal notices to local and provincial health authorities informing them of this weekend's plans. It also issued a deadline of Nov. 15 to ban the practice of forced overtime entirely or face action from the FIQ.
"We never know what time we are going to leave work," said Patrick Guay, vice-president of the FIQ's department of labour relations.
"It has an impact on our families, it has an impact on the overall [health] network ... There's no more patience. It's over."
The nurses' union says it's reached out to Quebec's workplace safety board and asked it to intervene. It also asked the province's human rights commission to study the issue.
The FIQ says the "inhumanity of such a system" puts the health and safety of both nurses and patients at risk and is also causing psychological damage to employees.
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