The improved version of the Lotto 6/49 lottery will be postponed in the province due to a strike by Loto-Québec employees.
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Loto-Québec will thus interrupt the Lotto 6/49 draws following the September 10 draw.
“It is technically impossible to continue the game in its current form beyond this date since the other provinces will migrate to the new improved version,” the company justified in a press release on Wednesday.
Scheduled for September 14, the draw will be postponed only in Quebec.
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Validation of Lotto 6/49 tickets will not be possible at retailers or on the app starting September 11, but ticket holders are encouraged to keep their ticket until the situation returns to normal.
An “incomprehensible” attitude
The Union of Professionals of the Government of Quebec (SPGQ) said it was outraged to see that Loto-Quebec preferred to lose millions rather than negotiate with its professional staff.
“These losses are higher than the wage increases demanded by the union. This attitude is completely incomprehensible,” lamented the SPGQ via press release Wednesday followingnoon.
The union said a mediation session was scheduled for Tuesday to move the talks forward, but the employer chose to cancel it.
“Several of our members notably go to work at Hydro-Québec, another state-owned company, because the conditions there are more advantageous. We do not understand the stubbornness of Loto-Québec and the Secretariat of the Treasury Board in not giving professional staff the salary and conditions they deserve,” said Guillaume Bouvrette, third vice-president of the SPGQ and political manager of Loto-Quebec.
According to him, Loto-Québec would be reduced to turning to external foreign companies to carry out various mandates. “In addition to causing a loss of expertise in Quebec, the use of consultants is much more expensive,” said Mr. Bouvrette.
He estimates that Loto-Québec pays at least $25 million in subcontracting each year.
“Even by improving working conditions, Loto-Québec would therefore be financially better off carrying out its projects internally,” he said.
At the end of August, 72% of Loto-Québec employees rejected the agreement in principle that had been reached with management.
“Loto-Québec’s professional staff is particularly disappointed with the employer’s salary offer since it entails a loss of their purchasing power given the inflation of recent months,” the union said at the time.
For unionized employees, the salaries offered and the impossibility of full-time telework when the tasks allow it, for example, “will harm the attraction and retention of staff”.
The SPGQ claims to have proposed to the employer party to meet jointly with the Treasury Board to reach an increase in the current offers, but that “the employer ignored this request” and that it “limits itself to offering an increase in the number of ‘hours of work in order to increase annual wages’.
Affected employees work in areas such as information technology, communications, sales and marketing, finance, procurement and real estate, and the legal sector.