The highly-anticipated Public Interest Commission report came in last month. As you may recall, the TC group was hoping the commission’s recommendations would lead to a fair tentative agreement to present to the membership. We caught up with one UNE bargaining team member to get the whole scoop!
“The report is favourable,” said Garry Larouche, Regional Vice-President for the Ontario. “It’s favourable in the sense that a number of our issues were recognized, including our economic demands.”
The report, in fact, points directly to UNE members in one paragraph, where it reads:
“The union’s brief is compelling in that it discloses that Labour Affairs Officers (LAOs) are paid less than their provincial counterparts for work of a similar and, in some cases, identical nature.”
The report also recognizes that Measurement Canada is having difficulty in “retaining both TI-03 recruits and [their] more experienced TI-04 staff.” In other words, Larouche explained, “we can’t hire – and when we do finally have them, they leave to the private sector.”
As a solution to both situations, the report recommended monthly terminable allowances. These allowances enable the employer to increase the salary of a particular group of employees without affecting the entire classification.
However, the employer doesn’t seem eager to accept these recommendations. A partial letter of dissent was written by the employer and included in the report.
“It gives us an idea of where Treasury Board is on the issue,” explained Larouche. “We’re not sure we’re going to get everything in the report.”
Larouche feels there’s still a lot of work to do. The next step will include mobilizing on the issue and putting pressure on the employer.
Soon, members of the TC bargaining team will start to hold town halls to provide more information on the road ahead. Locals who are holding annual general meetings should also consider inviting a member of the bargaining to speak with members.
“We want to explain where we are and where we want to go – but more importantly, we want to hear from the members,” said Larouche.