Public hearings on a bill to update Quebec’s labour standards continued on Monday afternoon. The government is calling it the work-life balance bill, but it’s struggling to find the middle ground.
Business owners say it gives workers too much time off, and unions representing employees say it doesn’t give them enough time with their families.
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One union representative didn’t mince words when he told MNAs studying the bill at the National Assembly that the legislation “lacks ambition.”
The government’s bill to create a better balance between work and family time proposes two days of paid time off in case of illness or to care for a loved one. Patrick Audy, vice-president of Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ) explained the collective agreement with the public servants his union represents currently offers 10 paid days.
“That should be the norm,” he said.
The problem though, is that small and medium businesses say it will already cost them over $1 billion in the next five years to comply with the new rules.
However, Audy said that we have to think about what kind of society we want: “All of us whether we have kids or not, we help our aging parents. We want more time at home,” he said.
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Bill 176 is a large piece of legislation making various amendments to Quebec’s labour standards, as well as addressing all kinds of harassment in the workplace. Among some of its proposed changes, it would give workers three weeks of vacation after three years of work and the right to refuse anything more than two hours of overtime.
Quebec’s nurses’ union has already sounded the alarm about forced overtime and exhaustion. They say poor working conditions are causing older nurses to take their retirement as soon as possible.
“Before, they might have stayed on a few extra years. Now, they’re counting down the days,” said Nancy Bédard, president of the nurses’ union.
Both unions said their own recommendations could help fix Quebec’s labour shortage problems. They say, if businesses want to keep employees, they have to beef up the benefits they offer.
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