News provided by
Comité d’action des personnes vivant des situations de handicap (CAPVISH)
COVID-19 – 34,000 PEOPLE, SENIORS OR DISABLED AS WELL AS THEIR HOME SUPPORT STAFF TOTALLY LEFT IN THE FORGOTTEN
QUEBEC CITY, April 9, 2020 / CNW Telbec / – CAPVISH, RAPLIQ and ROP03 are back in charge and urgently request a salary increase for the 21,958 employees of the Chèque emploi-service (CES) who support at home more than 12,000 seniors or disabled people in Quebec.
In the absence of fair salary conditions for the other attendants, their departure for the health network is likely to intensify, adding to the withdrawal movement created by the Canadian Emergency Benefit and the lack of protective equipment. The government of Quebec is negotiating with beneficiary attendants in the public and has just announced investments in private accommodation.
“The consequences are likely to be dramatic, there are hundreds of vulnerable people in Quebec who could be left behind in the middle of a pandemic,” said Dominique Salgado, director general of CAPVISH. The workers and especially workers of the Chèque emploi-service as well as the elderly and disabled people hiring them, they are always forgotten. Women workers who nevertheless perform the same tasks at the beneficiaries’ homes as the attendants in public or intermediary institutions. These seniors or the disabled would be much more expensive to stay in an establishment rather than at home.
“With a network that already sees its limits and is shedding services at the moment, with social economy companies that have reduced their services at the request of the Ministry of Health, what will be the capacity to meet the needs of older people or disabled when the lack of staff increases in the services of the Chèque emploi-service? ”, says Olivier Collomb of Eyrames, of ROP03. The government is already aware of the urgent and simple solution.
To avoid service breakdowns and ensure the resumption of the Chèque emploi-service program, it is necessary to raise the salary of CES employees as quickly as the same level as that of their colleagues. Not just with bonuses, you need a competitive salary past COVID-19. This measure must be permanent. “We must respect the will of self-management of people with functional limitations, whether they are elderly or disabled in order to allow them to pay their staff properly. Without that, it is the announced death of the Chèque emploi-service à service moyen, a program that was already having trouble breathing before COVID-19 and that could be completed in a few weeks, “concluded Linda Gauthier, president of the RAPLIQ. .
About CAPVISH, ROP03 and RAPLIQ: these three organizations have each worked for the defense and promotion of the rights of people with disabilities for many years. They unite today to demand respect for human rights.
SOURCE Action Committee for People Living with Disabilities
Information: National Capital Region: Dominique Salgado, Director General, CAPVISH, Bur. : 418-523-3065 ext. 22, Cell. : 581-988-7271; Metropolitan Montreal Region: Steven Laperrière, Director, RAPLIQ Cell: 514-836-6376