Hiring freeze for school support staff

Hiring freeze for school support staff – The CSQ denounces short-sighted policies

While yesterday’s hiring freeze announcements were not supposed to affect the school network, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) has just learned that the measures will in fact apply to school support staff, starting November 1 and continuing until further notice.

“We loudly denounce the political choices the government is making today. Let’s be clear: these support staff cuts will affect the entire school network! This is exactly what we feared. Since the start of the school year, we have been emphasizing the importance of taking advantage of the momentum of recent government actions in the education sector to move forward. The network was just starting to get its head above water and now the government is reversing the progress with a new round of cuts. Of course, they say student services will not be affected… We’ve already seen this movie a dozen times!”, says CSQ President Éric Gingras.

The announcement of the freeze that will affect the education sector was made to the union organizations in a meeting called at the last minute this morning. It was clearly stated that this measure is directly linked to the budget deficit. The terms have yet to be defined, and the job categories that will be targeted will be identified later.

The CSQ believes the government is making a serious error that shows how little it knows about the role played by support staff and how much they underestimate this role. The Centrale also deplores the fact that the government has been trying to minimize the consequences of its choices for several weeks, insisting this will have no impact on students.

Quotes from the CSQ’s school federations 

“There is already a shortage of school support staff in our communities. We have difficulty attracting people and holding on to them. When we cut a secretary, a computer technician or an employee in any other job class that works in a school, we reduce services to students. Aside from direct services to students, there are also indirect services. The two are complementary. The freeze that has been decreed will have negative consequences on the staff in place. There will be a higher risk of work overload, the effects of which we are already experiencing. The government’s decision to cut services to the public is inexplicable, inexcusable and irresponsible.”   – Éric Pronovost, President of the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ)

“Imposing cuts in the education sector in the middle of a school year seems to be the government’s style. But support staff are essential to the tasks teachers must perform every day. The negative effects will certainly be felt on the services provided in schools and centers. Together, we form the links in the chain that is the education network in Quebec. We stand in full solidarity with all our colleagues who are directly affected by these unacceptable and inconsistent measures.”   – Richard Bergevin, President of the Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement (FSE-CSQ)

“The cuts announced to administrative support staff in the school sector are unacceptable and it is completely wrong to believe that they will not affect student services. We need only think, for example, of school secretaries who are at the heart of school life. While this government denies that it is resorting to austerity measures, our recent experience shows us quite the opposite: cuts are already being made to student services. We know full well that the next services lined up for the scaffold are professional services, which have always been the network’s room to maneuver.”  – Jacques Landry, President of the Fédération des professionnelles et professionnels de l’éducation du Québec (FPPE-CSQ).