Hydro-Québec retains the services of 2290 consultants, some of whom work from abroad, revealed Radio-Canada on Thursday.
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According to data obtained by the public diffuser, Hydro officially has 23,506 people. However, this number reaches 47,468 if we include contract workers (16,815), partners (3527) and consultants (2290).
“Employees disguised”
The Syndicate of Hydro-Québec (SSPHQ) has tabled requests to the administrative labor court to have more than 1,000 consultants recognized as “disguised employees”. Its objective: to integrate them into the staff of the Crown Company.
According to the union, several consultants do work very similar to that carried out by its members, while being paid more.
“It is not a healthy use of public funds,” deplored Radio-Canada the president of the SSPHQ, Gilles Cazade.
“Hydro-Québec must have recourse to various external resources to carry out all of its activities,” said a spokesperson for the electricity giant, Louis-Olivier Batty.