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After two years of confrontation, 71% of SAQ employees have approved their new employment contract. Prior to this agreement, part-time workers (70% of the provincially owned company's workforce) had to wait between 12 and 15 years for insurance benefits. What will their working conditions be like in the future?
The North Star spoke to a part-time worker, at the SAQ, Quebec's public liquor corporation, to better understand the upcoming changes in their conditions.
The worker, who wished to remain anonymous, explains that one of the main demands, as in other public sector struggles, concerned the precarious position of the majority of the company's workers. Schedules are unstable, and the number of hours worked is not guaranteed, sometimes being as low as five hours a week.
What's more, part-time workers do not have access to benefits. As a result, it takes an average of 12 years to reach the number of hours required for group insurance. The hours add up slowly, to the point where a career at the SAQ is no longer an option for many.
As the worker explains: “Many of my part-time colleagues have realized that the SAQ is no longer a job where you can have a career, just a transition to a better job. It doesn't make sense to wait five years for more stable hours and benefits. Few are willing to give that much time to a company that doesn't seem to respect them.”
“My full-time colleagues often tell me that the golden age of the SAQ is over. They even encourage me to find another job. That says a lot about the situation.”
Following the new agreement, several gains have been made for full-time workers, but the two main ones concern working conditions for part-timers, as well as the creation of a new schedule assignment system.
There will also be a 19.7% wage increase over the six years of the contract, retroactive to April 2023. The agreement prevents 190 jobs from being cut by reducing cuts to a maximum of 30 positions per year.
As mentioned in a press release from the SEMB-SAQ-CSN union which represents the workers: “Employees with five years' seniority and an average of 20 hours over the previous year will now be entitled to the group insurance plan.”
As for schedules, the press release mentions that “5/20 status employees will also have priority in choosing schedules ahead of other part-time workers. They will also no longer have to provide their employer with minimum availabilities: they will select the schedule blocks that correspond to their availabilities themselves.”
The SAQ, a Crown corporation supported by public funds, fought for two years to deprive 70% of its employees of group insurance.
During the interview, the SAQ employee also pointed out that, despite the gains, the deal doesn't fully address the source of these workers' problem:
“In fact, our two biggest demands haven't had a solution with this agreement: 70% of employees will remain part-time and schedules will remain unstable. None of the new conditions of the agreement resolve these two problems.”
This agreement leaves many members with the most precarious conditions out in the cold. But it reflects the intensity with which employers will fight to ensure they save a penny. This is what the executive of the SEMB-SAQ union explains:
“After two years of grappling with an uncompromising employer, we are of the opinion that, in the socio-economic circumstances we are experiencing, we have gone for the best possible tentative agreement.”
He adds: “Having said that, the struggle doesn't end here for the 5,000 members of SEMB-SAQ-CSN. We have listened very carefully to the reservations shared by some of our colleagues, and we don't intend to stand idly by.”