The Fédération des Cégeps denounces the freeze on external recruitment announced by Quebec

Photo: Valérian Mazataud Le Devoir The Quebec government's call to halt the increase in the number of public sector employees is “slowing down the momentum of CEGEPs to fully accomplish their mission,” explains the Fédération des cégeps in a press release. Pictured: Cégep Dawson in Montreal, one of the 48 member institutions of the group.

Alex Fontaine

Published at 8:01 p.m.

• Québec

The Fédération des cégeps denounces the freeze on external recruitment as of November 1, decreed Thursday by the Quebec government. While CEGEPs are partly exempt from this freeze, it will still apply to support staff, which worries the Fédération and unions.

Quebec’s order, which seeks to put an end to the increase in the number of employees in the public service, “is slowing down the momentum of CEGEPs to fully accomplish their mission,” the Federation explains in a press release. And this, at a time when CEGEPs are welcoming more students than ever, it maintains.

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“The freeze on the recruitment of “administrative” staff comes on top of the budgetary restrictions announced in the middle of summer as well as the cap on paid hours in each of the institutions,” thunders the organization that brings together the 48 public colleges in the province. “This freeze will only exacerbate the management difficulties we are facing,” declared the President and CEO of the Fédération des cégeps, Marie Montpetit.

“On the one hand, we are being asked to train more technicians in daycare, nursing, engineering, and IT; on the other, our management autonomy is being restricted. Staff members who provide indirect services to students also have a role to play in their success,” says Ms. Montpetit

The Federation adds that CEGEPs are facing “difficulties in retaining and recruiting for key jobs” and that “the recruitment freeze will only amplify this phenomenon.”

Unions are outraged

The Treasury Board Secretariat indicated on Thursday that it wanted to “slow down the growth in the number of employees in the public service and respect the budgets allocated for the current year” by freezing external recruitment. This means that the positions to be filled can only be filled by people who are already employed in the public service. Quebec states that the procedure excludes the Health and Education networks, as well as certain Crown corporations, with the exception of administrative staff.

On Friday, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) denounced in a press release “a serious error on the part of the government” and believes that “this demonstrates the extent to which the role of support staff is misunderstood and underestimated.”

“There is already a shortage of school support staff in our communities,” said Éric Pronovost, president of the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire, affiliated with the CSQ. “We have difficulty attracting and retaining people. When we cut a secretary, a computer technician, a worker or any other class of employment who works in a school organization, we reduce the service to students.” He also fears an overload of work for existing employees.

The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) have all denounced the freeze on the recruitment of administrative staff and are concerned about the consequences it could have on services to the population.