Administrative judges began this week to reduce their hours to force Quebec to increase their salaries, La Presse learned. They are even considering going so far as to call a strike if necessary, which ironically would mean having to go to court.
“There is a lot of frustration at the moment. The government does not want to hear us,” says the president of the Conference of Administrative Judges of Quebec (CJAQ), Daniel Pelletier, whose organization brings together 300 of the 400 administrative judges in the province.
Less well-known to the public than the magistrates of the Court of Quebec or the Superior Court, these judges, who exercise their functions in 16 organizations and tribunals, hear tens of thousands of individual cases per year, whether in matters of housing, work, transportation, agricultural protection or access to information.
This is almost the same remuneration as an experienced prosecutor from the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).
“It’s less than the state lawyers who plead before us,” laments the president of the labor relations division of the Administrative Labor Tribunal (AJATAT-DRT), François Demers. “However, we essentially do the same work as judicial judges. We apply rules of law, we render judgments, we resolve disputes,” he says.
The result is striking: while in 2016, 240 people applied for a position as judge at the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT), there were only 149 last year. “Labor law specialists, instead of coming to us, they go elsewhere. Our operating conditions are disadvantageous,” says Mr. Demers.
According to our information, in the last year the government showed “a certain openness” to reviewing the salaries of administrative judges, before retracting, which caused a lot of anger in the community. The last salary increase for these magistrates dates back to 2022. They had obtained a 2% increase in the previous three years.
Last week, the 40 judges of the AJATAT-DRT were the first to vote for pressure tactics to be triggered “at the appropriate time”. The magistrates of the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) did the same on Tuesday evening. The TAT’s occupational health and safety division as well as two other administrative courts must rule this Thursday and Friday. Everything indicates that they will imitate their colleagues.
“Since Monday, our work has been reduced to 35 hours per week, like state lawyers,” explains Mr. Demers. “Until now, we were doing the work that was necessary, and it involved a substantially higher number of hours,” he says. The presence of a “judge on duty”, which was ensured at all times, will now also be limited to the period between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., unless there is an emergency.
“Our members have given us the mandate to plan a strike if necessary. It would involve an important legal issue, that’s for sure, and potentially one that would be resolved by a court. We would be in unknown and new territory,” notes Mr. Demers on this subject.
“We have heard the government tell us pretty much the same thing for at least ten years. There, we want results,” he adds.
According to Daniel Pelletier, the heart of the problem is that administrative judges do not really have negotiating power, their remuneration being linked by decree to the increases granted to state executives. They also do not have the right to arbitration, since they are not governed by the Labor Code.
“We want to be able to negotiate with a suitable and independent regime. We are one of the only groups of jurists not to have that in Quebec,” illustrates the president. “Right now with the government it’s just like a consultation. And if we don’t agree, they do what they want. »
His group sees this as a problem with the independence of administrative judges, who must decide on a daily basis disputes between various stakeholders and the Quebec state, “with whom they debate at the same time their salaries.” “It doesn’t make sense from the point of view of neutrality,” continues Mr. Pelletier.
The Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), which intervenes in several disputes before administrative courts, says it is “in solidarity with the demands of the judges”.
“We hope for a satisfactory settlement as soon as possible,” the union limited itself to saying.
The office of the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, indicated that “the government is in discussions within the framework of a working committee with associations bringing together members of the courts and administrative bodies. »
“However, we will not comment on the content of the working committee’s discussions or the measures that would be considered. Our priority remains to provide services to citizens,” he mentioned.
