Quebec nurses union says job postings requiring bilingualism are discriminatory

MONTREAL — A nurses union on Quebec’s Gaspé 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 saysthe 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.