The 33 emergency call reception and processing workers at CAUREQ (Eastern Quebec emergency call centre - Centre d’appels d’urgence de l’Est du Québec) signed their first collective agreement on December 22, 2011. The workers joined CUPE Local 5038 at the end of 2010.
The three-year contract includes:
- a new salary scale with increases of from $1.50 to $3 an hour
- an adjustment of working conditions in line with other emergency medical dispatchers in the province; provisions for implementing the recall list
- a more equitable distribution of overtime
- salary increases in accordance with the PSG (Wage Policy of the Government of Quebec - Politique salariale du gouvernement)
CAUREQ is responsible for receiving emergency calls throughout the Bas-Saint-Laurent, the Côte-Nord and the Gaspésie. They are the only emergency call centre workers in Quebec who combine three functions: reception of 911 calls, emergency medical response, and allocation of fire and ambulance services.
In Quebec, CUPE represents several groups of 911 police and fire service dispatchers and emergency medical responders, in Montreal, Lévis, Mascouche, Terrebonne and Deux-Montagnes, as well as the Thérèse-De Blainville and Roussillon intermunicipal police boards.