Salaries of $200,000 and more abound among Hydro-Québec union members. Eight of them earn more than $300,000.
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In three unions of the state corporation (trades, engineers, network), the 15 highest paid union members in 2023 make between $243,000 and $345,000 in total compensation.
The union of specialists and professionals, for its part, offers remuneration between $175,000 and $206,000 to its 15 highest employees.
The highest unionized employee earns $345,000 and is a member of the Hydro-Québec network employees (SERHQ). These “total remunerations” include salary, overtime and bonuses.
These figures were obtained thanks to a request for access to information made by The newspaper.
At Hydro-Québec, we are told that one of the reasons explaining these figures is additional time. Hydro has also paid more than $200 million in overtime in 2023.
“The year 2023 was punctuated by several extreme weather events which explain a greater use of overtime, such as the ice storm in April 2023 which required significant mobilization,” specifies Maxence Huard Lefebvre, spokesperson for Hydro- Quebec.
Note that the base salary of Hydro-Québec’s big boss, Michael Sabia, is $639,000.
The “$200,000 club”
The number of employees who obtain remuneration exceeding $200,000 is increasing rapidly in the Crown corporation. In 2021 there were 157, and they increased to 362 in 2022.
The Journal tried to obtain the number of employees of the “$200,000 club” in 2023, but after three days, Hydro-Québec still had not responded to our request.
Note that there are more than 160 different bonuses and allowances for different trades at Hydro-Québec, as the Journal recently revealed.
Also, Hydro-Québec paid nearly $37 million in bonuses to its employees last year, or 21% more than in 2022.
Total remuneration of the five highest employees according to the union
CUPE 1500 – Trades
- $314,000
- $292,000
- $280,000
- $269,000
- $268,000
SERHQ – Network
- $345,000
- $327,000
- $325,000
- $324,000
- $320,000
CUPE4250 – Specialists and professionals
- $206,000
- $203,000
- $191,000
- $189,000
- $188,000
SPIHQ – Engineers
- $322,000
- $293,000
- $290,000
- $279,000
- $253,000
