Government extends $18,000 bonuses to Pontiac imagery techs

Government extends $18,000 bonuses to Pontiac imagery techs

Late last week, the Quebec government announced that it had come to an agreement with the APTS, the union representing imagery technicians in the region, to extend bonuses of $18,000 to technicians working in the Pontiac region. The bonuses are equivalent to the ones offered to staff at the Maniwaki Hospital, however, are $4,000 less than those offered to staff at the Hull, Gatineau and Papineau hospitals. When those bonuses were offered earlier in the summer and not extended to the Pontiac Hospital, several local techs applied to transfer to the facilities in the city.

The $18,000 is conditional on the staff working 37.5 hours per week, and also comes with a 10% wage bonus during the summer holiday period. It was extended to those working at the Pontiac and Wakefield Hospitals, as well as the CLSCs in Mansfield and Petite-Nation.

Announcing the changes last week, Gatineau MNA Robert Bussière said that the bonuses now offered in rural areas are sufficient to prevent imaging technicians from leaving.

“With this agreement, we are ensuring the stability of the medical imaging workforce for the entire greater Outaouais region,” he wrote (translated)

In a French-language interview with CHIP 101.9, APTS Outaouais representative Christine Prégent said that the reality is in fact the opposite. She said the departure of imagery technicians from rural hospitals, either to Ontario or to other facilities in the Outaouais with larger bonuses, would inevitably lead to breaks in service down the road.

In a video posted to his social media, Pontiac MNA André Fortin said that the bonuses would not be sufficient to retain staff in the area and called on the government to equalize the bonuses throughout the entire region.

The full (French-language) interview with Prégent is available here.