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Quebec nurses union says job postings requiring bilingualism are discriminatory

A nurses union on Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula says job postings by the local health-care network discriminate against francophone people because they require that applicants speak English.

Union president Pier-Luc Bujold says the postings are disconnected from reality and amount to a kind of discrimination that belongs in a previous century.

He says the requirement disqualifies the majority of would-be applicants in the region.

The union says the decision to limit jobs to bilingual applicants is especially inappropriate given staff shortages and recruitment challenges in the health network.

The union is calling on the Quebec Health Department to intervene.

The Gaspe Peninsula health network, the Centre integre de sante et de services sociaux de la Gaspesie, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.