Federations
”FEDERATION”: organization bringing together the following four (4) union associations:
- Association des médecins résidents de Montréal (AMRM);
- Association des médecins résidents de Québec (AMReQ);
- Association des médecins résidents de Sherbrooke (AMReS);
- Association of Residents of McGill (Association des résidents de McGill ARM).
Interpretation
These five legal persons are signatories to the collective agreement. Depending on the context, rights and obligations may involve the Federation or an association, or sometimes the Federation on behalf of its affiliated associations.
Association
”ASSOCIATION”: One of the associations listed in Article 1.01.
Collège
”COLLÈGE”: Collège des médecins du Québec.
Resident
“RESIDENT”: Any person who carries out a rotation in an establishment with a view to obtaining a licence to practise or a specialist’s certificate awarded by the Collège, or who carries out a rotation in order to supplement his professional training, and who is defined as such by the Collège.
A person holding a doctorate in medicine or its equivalent who pursues, for twenty-four (24) months or more, a postgraduate training program accredited by the Collège, as a clinical fellow, and who, in an establishment, performs a clinical rotation, shall enjoy the same rights as those provided for in this Agreement, except with respect to Articles 15 and 19, and the overall monetary provisions or provisions with monetary impact stipulated therein. Where applicable, he shall enjoy the benefits stipulated in Articles 23, 24, 25, 26 and 28 without the salary, compensation, allowances or contributions provided for therein. He shall be entitled to the grievance and arbitration procedure set out in Article 18, except with respect to the above-mentioned exclusions.
To meet this definition of medical resident or clinical fellow, a person must have been admitted in a Quebec medical faculty to one of the positions authorized through the Decree on the terms and conditions for determining the number of medical resident positions available in postgraduate medical education programs.
Interpretation
The training card issued by the Collège defines the status of each individual—resident, or clinical fellow. Anyone holding a resident training card is covered by all the provisions of the collective agreement.
Furthermore, clinical fellows performing training of 24 months or more are provided for in the second paragraph of the article. A clinical fellow is an individual performing postgraduate medical training in Quebec who is paid from a source other than the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Through this article, the non-monetary clauses or clauses with a monetary impact must apply to these clinical fellows as they do to residents. In this way, residents and clinical fellows have the same rights and obligations with respect, for instance, to call duty schedules.
Clinical fellows subject to the collective agreement are not, however, entitled to any salary or compensation from the establishment. For instance, they may take their 20 days’ vacation provided for in the collective agreement, but it is up to their paying officer (other than a Quebec healthcare establishment) whether or not to pay them during this leave. These clinical fellows are not covered by the supplementary insurance plan provided for in Article 28 of the collective agreement.
Minister
”MINISTER”: the Minister of Health and Social Services
Chief resident
”CHIEF RESIDENT”: The resident who performs specific tasks in the administrative organization of a facility.
Interpretation
It is possible to have one chief resident position for each of an establishment’s facilities. The chief resident’s duties are defined by the establishment, particularly in relation to the duties set out in Article 15.03. The chief resident must be designated by the totality of residents in the facility, as stipulated in Article 15.01. He is entitled to the supplement provided for in Appendix I. A resident who is asked to perform chief resident duties must receive the supplement to which he is entitled, even if he has not been officially appointed by the establishment. He must therefore apply for the supplement to the head of the establishment’s Teaching Office.
Assistant chief resident
”ASSISTANT CHIEF RESIDENT”: Any resident who, in a service or major department in a facility, covers part of the tasks of a chief resident.
Interpretation
The assistant chief resident’s duties are defined by the establishment in relation to the duties carried out by the chief resident. This refers mainly to hospital, not university tasks. With the exception of departments where there is only a single resident, it is possible to create one or more assistant chief resident positions in all departments, with the number of positions varying in line with the number of people (residents, clinical clerks) for whom the assistant(s) is/are responsible. To that end, the head of the department concerned must submit a request to his establishment’s Teaching Office by means of a letter specifying the tasks accomplished by the assistant. If a resident is appointed assistant chief resident in an establishment other than his paying establishment, a person in authority at his rotation site (Teaching Office) must forward the relevant information to the paying establishment to ensure that the corresponding supplement is paid.
The assistant must be designated by the totality of residents in the service or department concerned, as stipulated in Article 15.01. He is entitled to the supplement provided for in Appendix I. Moreover, a resident who is asked to perform assistant chief resident duties must receive the supplement to which he is entitled, even if he has not been officially appointed by the establishment. He must therefore apply for the supplement to the establishment’s Teaching Office.
Spouse
”SPOUSE”:
Individuals who:
a) are married and live together;
b) are joined in a civil ceremony and live together;
c) live maritally and are the father and mother of the same child;
d) are of different or the same sex and have been living maritally for at least one (1) year.
Dependant child
”DEPENDENT CHILD”:
A child of the resident, or of his spouse, or of both, unmarried or not joined in a civil ceremony and residing or domiciled in Canada, who depends on the resident for his support and meets one of the following conditions:
- is under eighteen (18) years of age;
- is twenty-five (25) years of age or less and attends full-time, as a duly registered student, a recognized educational institution;
- regardless of his age, if he became totally disabled while meeting either of the preceding conditions and has remained continually disabled since that time.
Establishment
”ESTABLISHMENT”: An establishment within the meaning of the Act respecting health services and social services (RSQ, c. S-4.2), all facilities maintained by that establishment, and any other rotation site contemplated by the training card issued by the Collège.
Not included, however, are training sites approved by the Collège pursuant to Article 13.08, it being understood, in that case, that the establishment remains the one paying the resident’s salary.
Interpretation
The training card issued by the Collège specifies that a resident or clinical fellow: “may perform professional activities corresponding to his/her level of training in the following sites or in all other sites accredited by the CMQ [Collège] and required for the achievement of the objectives of the rotations by the training program.”
The Collège may, however, insofar as this meets the goals of the rotation, authorize a resident to perform certain medical acts, notably organ retrievals, in satellite settings. We suggest you check with the Collège whether this other rotation setting is authorized.
Note that Quebec ambulances operated by a corporation or cooperative holding a permit to operate ambulance services pursuant to the Act respecting pre-hospital emergency services, CQLR c. S-6.2, are deemed to be accredited rotation sites insofar as:
- the medical activities performed there by a resident are carried out within the framework of his training; and
- a resident performing medical activities there receives supervision appropriate to his level of training.
Weekend
”WEEKEND”: The period of time extending from 17:00 on Friday until 22:00 on Sunday.
For the purposes of Article 25.05, however, “weekend” means the period of time extending from 17:00 on Friday to 08:00 on Monday.
Nevertheless, the resident whose daily work schedule ends no later than 20:00 on Friday is not thereby deemed to have worked that weekend.
Interpretation
The weekend normally begins at 17:00 on Friday and ends at 22:00 on Sunday evening.
Nevertheless, when vacation is involved (Art. 25.05), the weekend begins at 17:00 on Friday and ends at 08:00 on Monday morning. So a resident will not be able to perform night call in an establishment or a night shift in the night from Sunday to Monday upon returning from vacation.
Finally, it is important to note that, even if the Monday is a statutory holiday, that day is never part of the weekend.
Leave
”LEAVE”: The period of time extending from 08:00 one day to 08:00 the next day, except where defined otherwise.
Interpretation
All leave provided for in the agreement, in particular study leave days or days of release for exams or conferences, is of 24 hours’ duration. No call period or shift may be scheduled during such leave.
Year
”YEAR”: The period of time extending from July 1 to June 30.
Interpretation
The banks of vacation, study leave, release for conferences, or sick leave are granted on July 1 each year. If you do not complete a full academic year, your various types of leave and release will be prorated to time worked.
For instance: if you do the first four periods of the year, you will be entitled to six days’ vacation, three days’ study leave, and two conference days.
The calculation is as follows:
x vacation days = (x periods X 20 vacation days) / 13 periods
6 vacation days = (4 periods X 20 vacation days) / 13 periods
Call period in an establishment
”CALL PERIOD IN AN ESTABLISHMENT”: Either of the following work period:
a) the work period extending from the end of the regular schedule and midnight, from Monday to Friday, or
b) the work period extending from 08:00 to 20:00 on Saturday and statutory holidays, and from 08:00 to 22:00 on Sunday.
Interpretation
Whenever the expression “call period in an establishment” appears in subsequent articles, this definition must be referred to. But if only the term “call duty” is used in an article, this refers both to call duty at home and to a call period in an establishment or night call in an establishment.
The article distinguishes between a call period in an establishment during the week, in paragraph a), and a call period in an establishment on the weekend or a statutory holiday, in paragraph b). First of all, paragraph a) indicates that the “call period in an establishment” begins at “the end of the regular schedule,” and this takes different departments’ variable schedules into account. In fact, in some departments, the regular day ends at 17:00, whereas in other departments, this same regular day may end at 20:00, owing to Article 12.01, which provides for the possibility of having a regular day of a maximum of 12 hours. Nevertheless, the end of the regular work day must be defined as the moment when it is normally expected that residents will have finished their work day. Thus, if all residents leave at 17:00 and a single resident is asked to remain until 20:00, that resident is deemed to be performing call duty. Furthermore, “call duty in an establishment” must end at any time between the end of the regular day and midnight.
For its part, paragraph b) stipulates that a call period in an establishment takes place between 08:00 and 20:00 on Saturday or a statutory holiday.
But the rule is different for Sunday, when the call period in an establishment must end no later than 22:00.
Night call in an establishment
”NIGHT CALL IN AN ESTABLISHMENT”: the work period starting at or after 20:00, or at or after 22:00 on Sunday, and continuing beyond midnight; night call in an establishment cannot last longer than twelve (12) consecutive hours.
Interpretation
Whenever the expression “night call in an establishment” appears in subsequent articles, this definition must be referred to. But if only the term “call duty” is used in an article, this refers both to call duty at home and to a call period in an establishment or night call in an establishment.
For call duty to be considered night call in an establishment, it has, among other things, to end after midnight and be of no more than 12 hours’ duration.
This definition stipulates that a resident begins his work period from 20:00 or later. He will therefore not be able to work during the day (between 08:00 and 20:00) on which he performs call duty.
Shift
”SHIFT”: Work period in the emergency room.
Interpretation
The Agreement uses the term “shift” only in the context of a resident performing an ongoing shift in the emergency room. This does not cover residents performing rotations in another department who, in the evening or on a weekend, will perform call duty in the emergency room.
Régie
«RÉGIE»: Régie de l’assurance-maladie du Québec (Quebec health insurance board, (RAMQ)).