Lia Levesque, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – One of the largest public sector unions has just filed a complaint against the Department of Health and Human Services for bad faith negotiations and obstruction of its union activities.

It is the APTS (Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services), representing 65,000 members, that has just filed this complaint with the Administrative Labor Court.

At the heart of the dispute is Quebec’s desire to pay financial compensation for membership in a professional association, but only to certain staff working at a youth center and only in the assessment and counseling service. Employees of other youth center services would not benefit from this temporary $900 grant.

With this, Québec wanted to contribute to shortening the waiting time when processing assessment files in the protection of minors.

The APTS criticizes Quebec for unilaterally implementing this compensation, even though it was in the process of negotiating the renewal of collective agreements.

Payment by Quebec of an amount to offset license fees to professional bodies or associations is precisely part of the APTS’ list of demands filed last October, albeit for all of its members.

“It is evident that the defendants are enforcing the conditions for the application of one of the working conditions currently being negotiated,” writes the union coalition in its petition.

“By refusing to negotiate and unilaterally enforcing these terms and conditions, the defendants are putting the plaintiff in check and preventing him from bargaining collectively on behalf of the workers he represents,” the APTS argues further in its filing.

The union coalition also argues that within the same youth center some union members receive this amount and others do not, leading to “discriminatory, unfair and inappropriate working conditions”.

The APTS therefore asks the tribunal to find that Quebec has failed in its duty to negotiate in good faith and has obstructed its union activities.

The Alliance is also asking him to order Quebec to pay him $15,000 in punitive damages.