Finally, after three-and-a-half years, we received the arbitration awards for interviewers (belonging to the RO and FI classifications) who conduct surveys for Statistics Canada.
There are a number of significant victories in the decisions:
- We achieved wage increases totaling 9.6% over the life of the contract, with full retroactivity – significantly more than what management had proposed in negotiations.
- We achieved new protections and rights for employees in the context of work assignments.
- We got new job security rights.
- There are increases in premiums.
- There is new language concerning AWW’s, with the parties directed to meet and negotiate further on the issue concerning the union’s proposals.
While we did not achieve everything we asked for, we made real progress in areas that our bargaining teams indicated were critical for this round of bargaining.
We won these because of the hard work and determination of our bargaining teams and the solidarity of PSAC members at SSO.
Since the fall of 2011, PSAC has been engaged in a fight with SSO to improve working conditions for interviewers and SIs at Statistics Canada.
- We held months of negotiations with the employer
- We organized information pickets at SSO workplaces across the country
- We organized a rally held outside Stats Can headquarters in Ottawa.
- We filed legal challenges, and had jurisdictional hearings at the Labour Board
- We even took both the Labour Board and SSO to Federal Court.
- And we got a member of Parliament to question the government about SSO’s refusal to negotiate a fair contract with us.
We should all be proud of the work we did to achieve these victories, despite it being a difficult and lengthy round of bargaining.
The next round will begin shortly, and given the position taken by the government with other PSAC bargaining units, we can also expect it to be tough. Now is the time for members to not only take the time to learn about and understand the rights provisions under our new contracts, but also to prepare for the coming round. We will provide a more detailed list of all the changes in the new collective agreements very soon.
Source: www.psacunion.ca