There will be no more privileges for new nurses who graduate from university, who will now start their careers at the bottom of the salary scale, like the others.
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The Legault government is asking the health network to respect collective agreements and no longer grant financial benefits to future graduate nurses.
“The labor situation is difficult in most health establishments in Quebec and it is for this reason that the department issued a reminder last fall to stop non-compliant practices. It is the duty of the government to respect the collective agreements and the equity between the staff, ”we argue, in the office of Minister Christian Dubé.
In an open letter published Thursday in La Presse, the president of the Association of Graduate Students in Nursing Sciences of McGill University denounces loud and clear the position of Quebec.
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“For decades, new nurses with a university degree began their careers at step 7, reflecting their university education, deplores Sydney Wasserman. For a long time, Quebec nurses have been entitled to a salary increase equivalent to two steps per year of full-time university studies.
The government replies that this is indeed a non-compliant practice which did not respect the collective agreement in force negotiated with the unions.
At the office of the Minister of Health, it is ensured that no nurse currently in post will see his paycheck decrease. Only new graduates will begin their careers at the first salary step, “as is written in black and white in the collective agreement”.