Quebec plans to make private nursing agencies less attractive to keep workers in public sector
CBC
In Quebec's latest effort to retain nurses in the public sector, the province is expected to impose new measures that would make working in private nursing agencies less attractive.
Nurses have said the poor working conditions in the province's public health-care system have pushed them into the private sector, which offers better pay and more flexible hours.
But according to Radio-Canada, this week, the government plans to force private agencies to fill less favourable shifts, such as evening, overnight and weekend shifts — a move that's left some in the health-care system divided.
"It doesn't make sense that I have better working conditions than somebody employed by the public sector, but the solution for that isn't to take away those conditions which are actually keeping a lot of nurses in the profession," said Alex Magdzinski, a nurse in the province's private sector and vice-president of the Quebec Nurses' Association.
Magdzinski used to work in the public sector, but he left in November 2020 to work for a private nursing agency in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, due to the flexibility it offered.
He says instead of trying to make the private system less desirable, the government should be trying to make the public system better.
"Really looking at what can be done with scheduling and flexibility in the public sector is more what the government should be doing rather than trying to eliminate agencies from having that flexibility for their employees," he said.
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