Montreal paramedics ordered to maintain essential services
Labour tribunal blocks new strike tactics, ruling pressure campaign breaches existing court orders on essential coverage.
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Quebec's labour tribunal blocked paramedics' unions from escalating their pressure tactics Tuesday, ordering them to maintain the same level of essential services already mandated by earlier court rulings.
The Administrative Labour Tribunal ruled that ambulance cooperatives and companies prevailed in their bid to stop the new action. Paramedics had planned to refuse overtime work and decline availability to staffing agencies starting this week — moves that would have added to an indefinite strike that began months earlier but has had little public impact because paramedics' duties are considered essential services.
Administrative Judge Benoît Roy-Déry noted the court had already ruled on which essential services must be maintained when strikes began in July 2025 (for unions affiliated with the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux) and September 2025 (for the Association des travailleurs du préhospitalier). The new pressure tactics, the judge found, are not among the services specifically excluded from that earlier order.
The ruling does not prohibit individual paramedics from refusing overtime for personal reasons unrelated to union directives, or from declining private staffing-agency work based on individual choice — only from coordinated action tied to the strike.