The strike schedule produced by your local executive will give you the exact time at which you will exercise your right to strike. This schedule should be available at least 48 hours before the beginning of strike action.

The schedule will be posted on the intranet and sent by email, or through any other channel that your employer normally uses. Watch your emails and your local APTS executive’s Facebook page.

Joining a picket line in front of your institution is a way of showing your solidarity and achieving greater visibility for strike action – our ultimate pressure tactic. We encourage you to walk the picket line proudly, carrying a banner or sign provided by the APTS.

Access to your institution must not be blocked under any circumstances.

There may be other strike activities taking place at your institution or in your region. Check with your local executive for details. 

You will be invited to take part in picketing outside your institution. Information about the exact location will be provided by your local executive. If no picket line is being organized in front of your workplace, you will be told where to go to participate in strike activities. Please note that the schedule for picketing lines may vary, and when there is picketing on a weekend, some sites may be closed.

Here is a Google map showing the location of picket lines for all of the institutions represented by the APTS.

If you want to request strike pay, you must sign up at a picket line in front of an institution where the APTS is on strike.

Health and social services are covered by provisions of the Labour Code on essential services. Changes to the rules on essential services mean that you can strike for up to 50% of your shift, depending on your job title and the sector and institution where you work.

Your local executive will send you your strike schedule as soon as possible. Keep an eye on your emails.

If your name is not included on the strike schedule and you are listed on the normal work schedule, contact your local executive.

You should keep working at the same pace as usual. It is very important not to try to make up for your strike time at some other point in the day or week – by stepping up the pace, working extra hours without pay, or skipping your breaks, for instance. That would defeat the whole purpose of the strike.

Under the new rules on essential services, institutions have to organize work so that only essential tasks are performed on a strike day, and they must ensure that normal workloads are adjusted to accommodate the strike.

The employer has to establish a contingency plan for strike days and take whatever steps are needed to adjust workloads, and the organization of work, in order to comply with provisions of essential service agreements on the number of hours worked. If work to maintain essential services during the strike is set at 3.5 hours over the course of the day (i.e., essential services are set at 50%), your workload must be equal to 3.5 hours minus breaks.

Breaks and meal times

You must take all the breaks provided for in the collective agreement, and you are also entitled to your meal period.

On a strike day, overtime applies when you are assigned to work on an emergency for a longer period than indicated on the strike schedule. Any hours beyond those specified on the schedule must be taken back on the same day, and if that is not possible, they must be paid as overtime.

A situation is considered an emergency if it must be dealt with immediately to avoid significant harm to a service user. You have to use your professional judgment in order to comply with your professional obligations, while limiting the impact on the strike as much as possible.

Contact your local executive if this situation arises.

When the absence has already been authorized

Essential service agreements stipulate that strike time is based on your usual, normal hours. Any time off that was granted beforehand, as part of the normal schedule, continues to be in effect.

Vacation leave

Any vacation leave that was already authorized on the normal schedule, before the strike began, continues to apply.

Remuneration for vacation leave

If you are a full-time employee, you will receive the same pay as if you were normally at work.

If you are part-time, your pay includes a percentage of fringe benefits and shouldn’t be affected by the strike.

Unforeseen absence

Given the importance of maintaining essential services, if the strike schedule indicates that you are assigned to work, you have to ask your manager for permission to take unscheduled time off. This may be granted in exceptional cases. 

SUGGESTED ABSENCE MESSAGE

You can announce that strike action is underway by leaving a voicemail message or adding this information to your email signature. We strongly recommend that you do so.

Here’s an example of a message you can use:

“Hi,

I am on strike today to demand better health care and social services for all Quebecers. By improving my working conditions, the government will improve the quality of care and services I provide on a daily basis. Thank you for supporting health and social service workers.

Please leave me a message and I’ll contact you as soon as possible. If this is an emergency, please contact … (put emergency contact information here).

I look forward to responding to your needs.

Electronic signature – Name”

Caution is the rule. When you speak publicly on matters related to your work or profession, there are ethical obligations that must be respected so as not to harm your profession or those you serve.

Given these obligations, you have to show moderation and stick to the facts. We advise you to avoid mentioning specific cases involving service users who might be identified. It’s important to protect their identity, and to refrain from making statements that might be offensive or damage the reputation of your profession.

An employer can’t prohibit you from speaking to the media on a picket line or at any other time, but we strongly recommend that you refer reporters to your local executive.

When you communicate with service users or their family members during a strike, it’s important to explain the situation and the impact on services that are generally offered. We strongly advise you to explain that the current strike situation could lead to a slowdown in services, while emphasizing the fact that emergencies will be given priority.

 The employer has an obligation to maintain your working conditions during a strike. If you have any questions about your working conditions, contact a labour relations counsellor for your institution.

Your employer has an obligation to take your professional reality into account when reorganizing your department and tasks in the context of a strike. This means that the employer must show respect for your ethical obligations and listen to what you have to say.

If a manager who is reorganizing your department and tasks in order to maintain essential services gives directives that go against your ethical obligations as a professional, it is imperative that you point this out.

Even if you don’t belong to a professional order and are not bound by a code of ethics, you still have professional obligations to the people to whom you provide services. We recommend that you tell your employer about any discomfort you feel when you’re given directives that, in your view, are in contradiction with your professional obligations.

Once you’ve told your employer what you think, it’s important to make sure that there are written traces of these exchanges. We recommend that you tell your labour relations counsellor and your colleagues about the issue. This will help ensure that there is a follow-up and that action can be taken. 

Your employer has an obligation to take your professional reality into account when reorganizing your department and tasks in the context of a strike. This means that the employer must show respect for your ethical obligations and listen to what you have to say.

When you’re a professional, you’re a professional at all times. Your professional obligations, whether or not they are set out in a code of conduct or ethics, continue to apply, regardless of context. When the employer’s directives go against your obligations, you are required to be proactive in explaining the problem to your employer and suggesting a way of honouring these obligations. Protecting the public, and complying with your ethical obligations, take precedence over your duty to follow instructions.

Backed by labour relations counsellors, your local executive is there to answer your questions. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, either for help in filling out the online form or to get answers about compensation rules.