Revenu Québec may face a wave of mass departures, according to a recent survey by the Professions and Professionals Syndicate of Quebec Government (SPGQ), indicating that two out of three people are considering leaving their jobs if their presence in the office is still required.

Nearly 45% of survey respondents were not tempted to be in the office, which is required of them two days a week by Quebec tax authorities.

A Thursday press release explained that “in addition to not having enough equipment preventing the employee from providing efficient and satisfactory service, days in the office generally take place on the Teams platform with colleagues (and sometimes the manager) working remotely.” Beaufret, 3rd Vice President of SPGQ.

According to the union, Revenu Québec (RQ) employees lack professional independence, a situation at the center of negotiations to renew their collective agreement, which expired 15 months ago.

According to SPGQ, working conditions and wages will be “significantly lower” than those of Quebec Revenue Agency employees.

“The lack of professional independence for our members is more and more coupled with a huge loss of expertise for the tax authorities in Quebec,” said Mr. Beaufret, who took for example the problems of implementing software under contract.

He continued, “For a government agency to outsource its core mission rather than train its own staff to perform it is not only disheartening, it’s outrageous!”

He particularly regrets that Quebec tax authorities also want to outsource tax debt collection.

“Once again, RQ is offloading its mission in favor of private companies, because the agency is unable to retain information technology (IT) professionals, and fails to offer competitive compensation,” he said.

SPGQ represents approximately 5,500 employees at Revenu Québec.