No guarantees on job security or benefits: NRG negotiators

Priscilla Bittar, a union representative with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the federation of unions which represents employees at Nunavik’s hospitals, airports and the Kativik Regional Government, asks negotiators at a March 16 meeting in Montreal what kind of guarantees the Nunavik Regional Governnment can offer to workers during the reorganization period. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

MONTREAL – Employees who may find themselves working under a new Nunavik Regional Government want to make sure their jobs and work benefits are secure.

That’s what they told negotiators of the NRG’s final agreement at a March 16 meeting in Montreal.

But they didn’t get any guarantees.

There’s “no guarantee” that all current positions will stay in place after the regional organizations amalgamate under a new Nunavik regional government structure, said Quebec negotiator Fernand Roy.

Nor is there a guarantee that employees’ working conditions will remain the same.

Many Montreal-based workers at Nunavik organizations turned out for the March 16 information session to find out how their jobs might be affected if the NRG is adopted next month.

Nunavik’s new governance model plans to amalgamate the Kativik Regional Government, the Kativik School Board and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services into one body, along with their employees.

NRG negotiators told staff at Nunavik organizations not to worry, that no jobs will be lost in the transition and that the different working conditions will be gradually harmonized once the amalgamation process begins.

But Priscilla Bittar, a union representative with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux — the federation of unions which represents employees at Nunavik’s hospitals, airports and the KRG — asked negotiators what kind of guarantees the NRG can offer to workers during the reorganization period.

“It’s not that we don’t support the creation of this new government, but it’s very complex,” Bittar said. “There are many disparities between the three employers and the working conditions they offer their staff.”

Once the NRG is created, existing collective agreements will be respected until their end, negotiators said.

And the process for renewing collective agreements will stay the same.

As well, new jobs will be created within the NRG’s centralized administration, with working conditions determined by a transition committee.

Under the NRG, the KSB would become the department of education services; the Nunavik health board would become the department of health and social services.

“The intent is that [the NRG] should go towards the same working conditions for everyone, but the situation is so different from one body to the next that it will take time,” Roy said. “We’ll try to do it step by step to avoid court litigation.”

Currently, working conditions vary from one organization to the next; some offer pensions, certain northern benefits or travel subsidies, while others don’t.

Bittar then asked if integrating benefits could mean future NRG employees end up with the best possible working conditions in the North.

“I know employees want to get the best of all the working conditions of other employees,” Roy told her. “But this comes with a cost.”

Both the NRG’s federal and provincial negotiators have denied that the new regional government model will be a cost-saving measure. The provincial and federal governments have committed to shoulder the NRG’s start-up costs and ongoing expenses of running the assembly, but no one has said just how much this will add up to.

Many Inuit employees of the organizations impacted by the NRG hope the new government will offer more jobs to Inuit and bring them benefits similar to what many of their non-Inuit colleagues enjoy.

“The whole equity issue is something that needs to be addressed,” said negotiator Minnie Grey. “But we’re not in the position to offer that guarantee.”

Inuit often complain that non-Inuit take jobs that Inuit could fill, but the jobs are open to everyone, she said.

“Many of those jobs could be taken by Inuit if the Inuit want them,” Grey said. “We have to change our dependency and thinking.”

The March 16 information session in a Ville St-Laurent hotel was the last in the negotiators’ month-long tour around the region.

Nunavimmiut now have until the April 27 referendum to decide if they support or reject the final agreement which would lead to the creation of the NRG.

If the agreement is ratified next month, the provincial government would present draft legislation to Quebec’s national assembly next fall.

Once approved, the NRG’s transition committee could be appointed to begin its work in early 2012.