Latest news with #LouisOlivierBatty
CTV News
27-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Union workers call out Hydro-Quebec for asking tribunal to force employees back to work over holiday outages
Trade war or not, Hydro-Québec will have to continue to limit its exports to the United States. A Hydro-Québec worker on September 1, 2023. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press) Union workers with Hydro-Quebec are calling out the Crown corporation's decision to ask the labour tribunal to force employees back to work after Monday's storm that left over 100,000 clients in the Quebec City region without electricity. Hydro-Québec attempted to restore service quickly following the outages, but when it called on employees for help, very few responded, likely due to Fête Nationale. 'It was difficult to mobilize our teams, partly because of the holiday,' explained Hydro-Québec spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty, in an interview with Noovo Info. Batty said that on holidays, the Crown corporation expects a 40 to 50 per cent response rate from its workers, but on Tuesday, only about 10 per cent of workers responded to the call. Fréderic Savard of the Hydro-Québec Trades Employees Union (SCFP 1500) told Noovo Info the situation highlights shortcomings in Hydro-Québec's planning regarding the management and predictability of work. 'We would like to point out the hypocrisy of Hydro-Québec, which brought the SCFP1500 union before the tribunal when there are still outages related to the storm, but Hydro-Québec discharged the workers on Wednesday, and all the teams were sent back to their respective regions,' said Savard. Hydro-Québec said on Thursday that the situation is nearly resolved, with 95 per cent of 'customers affected by outages related to the June 23 storms having their power restored.'By Friday morning, only 241 out of nearly 420,000 addresses were still without electricity. - With files from Noovo Info
CTV News
26-06-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Fête Nationale power outages: Few Hydro-Quebec employees wanted to work
Dangerous weather and an intense thunderstorm left more than 100,000 households in and around Quebec City without power on Monday night. After receiving notice of the high volume of blackouts, Hydro-Quebec says it quickly got to work to resolve the issue, but hit a wall when it started making phone calls to employees. 'It's been difficult in terms of mobilizing our teams, partly because of the holiday,' explained Hydro-Quebec spokesperson Louis-Olivier Batty in an interview with Noovo Info. READ MORE: Thousands without power during extreme heat after storm rolls through Quebec City area He points out that on public holidays, Hydro-Quebec expects a response rate of between 40 and 50 per cent from employees. On Tuesday, the Fête Nationale, the public utility company says barely 10 per cent of workers answered the urgent call. 'We had to quickly call on outside resources to lend a hand,' said Batty. In the end, Hydro-Quebec says it turned to the Administrative Labour Tribunal to force its employees to perform. In its ruling, the tribunal declared that the workers' lack of response constituted a concerted effort that deprived or could have deprived the public of an entitled service. It ordered them to take action. In response, the workers' union says it has taken note of the court's decision and intends to cooperate fully. However, it adds that the situation highlights shortcomings in Hydro-Quebec's planning when it comes to management and predictability of work. On Wednesday, more than 800,000 Hydro-Quebec workers were back in the field, with 10,000 customers still without electricity. 'When we have events like Monday, with a lot of outages and a lot of damage, we quickly carry out work on outages that restore a lot of customers at once,' said Batty. 'On Wednesday, we were dealing with a lot of small outages where we were restoring between five and 20 customers at a time.'
