Partying janitors ineligible for therapy

>>

by Kristian Gravenor

Fifteen janitors fired last week from Hôtel Dieu Hospital can't keep their jobs while undergoing drug and alcohol counselling "because they acted as a group," according to administration. "It was a group of workers who knew each other for a long time. We can propose drug and alcohol counselling but that's a service for individuals and not for groups," says hospital rep Charles Meunier.

Their union rep sees things differently. "Drugs are a social problem nowadays. It's not the '50s anymore. Today, if workers have a problem with drugs or alcohol, the employer has to help them," says Pierre Demers, the president of the 1,100-member hospital workers' union. "If management was at all competent, they'd invite [the janitors] to get help. If they persisted after that, then that's another story." The 11 male and four female workers, some of whom had up to 23 years of seniority, all of québécois background, were paid $14 an hour to clean the hospital from 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Four others were suspended for the same antics, which management claims was earmarked by signs of lowered productivity but posed no danger to medical operations. "The patients weren't bothered by it. There was no theft of medications or anything," says Meunier. The union plans to try to overturn the firings at an upcoming date at the Quebec Labour Board.