Samantha Wiesenfeld recently began working as a nurse clinician at a Montreal-area hospital and is also a master’s student at McGill University.
She says she always had an idea of what she was going to be paid — but when she found out it was significantly less than she thought, she was blindsided.
According to Félix-Olivier Bonneville, the Ste-Justine nursing union president, a branch of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), it was common practice for Montreal health-care establishments to pay nurse clinicians, according to the collective agreement but incentivize based on academics.
For example, instead of starting them off at echelon 1 – which is about $27/hour, they would often start them at echelon 6 or 7, which is about $32/hour, if they had a bachelor’s degree, or echelon 9 or 10, about $36, if they had a master’s.
“The government asked us to stop this practice and start these nurses at echelon 1,” said Bonneville.
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Bonneville says establishments recently received directives from Quebec’s health and social services ministry that all nurses hired after Dec. 16, 2022, will have to begin at echelon 1 – but those who are already hired in the role will continue to be paid the same.
He said that the union hopes to fix the issue in the next collective agreement.
“I just don’t think I could stay if I’m not being compensated for the work I’m doing,” said Wiesenfeld. “Especially when I consider the fact that others who have the exact same work experience as me, doing the exact same job, are just making substantially more than me.”
Other students feel the same.
Pauline Belliveau, who is in her second year at McGill on her way to completing a master’s in nursing, says she’s not sure whether she will stay in Quebec once she graduates.
“Right now it’s just an option that doesn’t seem as appealing where maybe working in Ontario where starting salary is at least $6/hour more than it is here,” said Belliveau.
In an email to Global News, the West Island health authority admitted this was a practice that was implemented at its institutions to help recruit and retain nursing graduates.
“This application was not consistent with the terms of the collective agreement.”
Meanwhile, Quebec’s health and social services ministry said the rules in the current collective agreement need to be respected.
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