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Treasury Board bargaining resumes amid delays and growing frustration

In the continued wake of the Phoenix pay system disaster, bargaining teams representing nearly 90,000 federal public service workers are back at the bargaining table with Treasury Board this week and next.

PSAC’s bargaining teams have been repeatedly disappointed by the continued lack of response and meaningful engagement by Treasury Board. In July, PSAC came to the table with clear proposals and a strong mandate to move forward. Unfortunately, the Government has yet to engage substantially with PSAC’s various proposals, and have not offered counter proposals.

“​It’s outrageous that our members have been waiting three years to get paid correctly under Phoenix—they shouldn’t have to also wait to get the fair working conditions they deserve,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC National President. “They’re very frustrated at the lack of movement in almost six months since we first sat down to bargain with the Liberal government.”

From November 27 to 29 the negotiations will cover table-specific proposals for the four bargaining groups: Program & Administrative Services (PA), Technical Services (TC), Operations Services (SV), and Education & Library Science (EB); and issues common to all teams will be covered December 4 to 6.

“For these upcoming meetings, we’re demanding the government come to the table ready to make significant progress,” concluded Aylward.

 

Source: www.psacunion.ca

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Response to Statistics Canada on Banking Information Data Collection

SSO Interviewers deserve better from Statistics Canada!

Following concerns expressed by the public over a pilot project run by Statistics Canada on banking information data collection, Chief Statistician of Canada Anil Arora made a statement yesterday responding to demands that the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to “take a deeper dive” into data mining of financial information.

The UNE/PSAC represents Statistical Survey Interviewers (SSO) who are responsible largely for telephone and field interviews that collect the raw data that is subsequently used to provide statistics on everything from literacy to consumer expenditures.

No amount of electronic mining of personal algorithms with respect to data collection can replace compassionate and professional skill sets that our members possess.

SSO Interviewers have been battling for months at the bargaining table with the employer to get a collective agreement that addresses long standing concerns of our hard-working members, including the acknowledgement of both modernization of the interviewer workforce and the effects of technological change.

Chief Statistician of Canada Anil Arora is claiming that his agency is “going above and beyond” when it comes to addressing privacy concerns by Canadians.

Mr. Arora should also consider “going above and beyond” in recognition of its dedicated workforce, amongst the regional office and field interviewers.

Interviewers provide a critical service for Canadians and that service needs to be both modernized and respected, both at work and at the bargaining table.

Kevin King

UNE National President

 

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Parks National Bargaining Conference

PSAC’s Parks Canada met last week in Ottawa for a three-day bargaining conference. Members from across the country gathered from September 25 to 27 in order to prepare for upcoming negotiations for a new collective agreement.

Throughout the conference, the delegates:
• learned about the collective bargaining process,
• reviewed bargaining proposals and discuss priorities,
• developed mobilization strategies, and
• elected their bargaining team members.

The new bargaining team. First row, from left to right: Omar Murray (Local 40340 – Parks Canada – Saskatchewan South, SK); Loretta Moar (Local 50110 – Riding Mountain National Park, MB); Kassandra McKinnon (Local 90023 – Parks Canada Employees); Angela Decker (Local 90265 – Gros Morne National Park, NL); Birch Howard (alternate) (Local Y0104 – Kluane National Park, YT). Second row, from left to right: UCTE member Daniel Britton; UCTE member Réginal Bernatchez (alternate); Daniel Toutant (Local 10269 – Mauricie National Park and Forges du Saint-Maurice National Historic Site, QC); Marc Phillips (Local 70501 – Parks Canada Agency (Gatineau), NCR); André Miller (alternate) (Local 70501 – Parks Canada Agency (Gatineau), NCR); Mike LeBlanc (alternate) (Local 60284 – Kouchibouguac National Park, NB)

Parks Canada members signed their most recent agreement on May 31, 2018. The four-year collective agreement, which expired August 4, 2018, includes an updated definition of ‘family’, improved leave provisions, improved member protections, unchanged sick leave, and monetary compensation for members.

Stay up to date with bargaining news by visiting the PSAC Parks Canada bargaining webpage, or sign up to receive PSAC e-News.

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NBC Members in negots hold a Rally!

Union solidarity was on the agenda this morning in the streets of Quebec City. Members of the National Battlefields Commission (NBC) held a rally to demand a fair and equitable collective agreement. The stakes are high because these members are currently in negotiation, while their collective agreement expired at the end of 2017.

The UNE represents this group of workers with various positions such as gardener, guide, landscaper, or communications employee, with the exception of the NBC police.

The majority of these members have precarious jobs and it is important that the employer make a gesture. “There are many people who are on call, seasonal, and for those who are on call, even if they have been working for the NBC for 10 or 15 years, they have no benefits or funds pension, “says Claudia Bellavance, a member of the Union bargaining committee. (translated quote from the article by Ici Radio-Canada, in French only).

These workers are facing many obstacles in their careers and demand better working conditions, especially women workers who are planning a pregnancy. Wage disparity is also at the heart of bargaining with the employer, as well as work-family balance.

The status quo is unacceptable, and members are determined to fight for the new collective agreement to recognize their rights.

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Bargaining Demands Input Call for Parks Canada Agency

The next round of negotiations with the Employer to renew your collective agreement will be happening soon. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has the primary responsibility for collective bargaining, but before negotiations begin, the UNE is responsible for soliciting bargaining demands from its members.

This is your chance to have your say and address specific issues that require improvement in your collective agreement.

Key dates to keep in mind:

 

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Update on SSO Negotiations

The bargaining team met in Ottawa from June 12 to 14, 2018, to try to reach a collective agreement for both office and field units.

An important improvement for our members in both units was reached after weeks of discussion with the employer: the conversion of term positions to indeterminate ones after four years of employment at SSO. The new policy will come into effect as of October 1, 2018 and cannot be altered unless both parties agree to modify it.

The PSAC bargaining team has been fighting hard to negotiate a fair collective agreement and put forward proposals on wage-related issues. The employer accepted the same wage increase that the core public sector gets but refused any other offer.

Since there are still important wages issues both parties could not agree, the next step will be to file for arbitration. Stay tuned.

Our bargaining team:

Shalane Spencer

Mary Ann Walker

Linda Woods

Shelly Daudlin

Alice Vallee

Claude-Andre Leduc

Anna Goldfeld

 

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We’ve made a commitment to SSO; isn’t it time SSO made a commitment to us?

Our bargaining team held three days of bargaining with SSO during the week of November 20. We focused on our key bargaining issues: hours of work, job security and term employment. We did this with the support of our members across the country.

We thank regional office interviewers who wore stickers in the workplace and to field interviewers who sent us their stickers to highlight these problems. We posted the stickers in our bargaining room and the employer’s team had an opportunity to see the real magnitude of job precarity faced by our members.

We tabled proposals which seek to resolve the challenges faced by our members due to the precarious working conditions maintained by SSO.

Our proposals include:

  • Hours of work assigned by seniority: Seniority has long been recognized – in both the public and private sector – as the best way of ensuring hours are allocated in a fair and transparent manner. It shouldn’t depend on whether you are your supervisor’s favourite or whether you are a union activist. With seniority, everyone knows how hours are allocated and it is done objectively.
  • Maximizing work for existing employees: It is critical for our income security that SSO maximize hours of work for existing employees before hiring new employees. Our employer shouldn’t hire more employees when existing staff are interested and available to work. Some of our members don’t even have enough hours to make ends meet. Meanwhile SSO continues to hire more people. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not fair.
  • Limits to term employment: SSO hires most people as term employees. However, we know that term employees are not working for short periods. Most term employees have worked for SSO for many years, some as many as 15 years! Clearly this is not term employment. This is manufactured job insecurity.
    The full proposals we tabled are attached.

We are pleased that during the week we came to agreement with SSO on some issues. We have expanded the definition of family, added gender identity and gender expression as grounds for protection against discrimination, improved bereavement leave, and maintained existing maternity and parental leave benefits.

We will be back at the bargaining table December 12 to 14. More updates to follow.

Union Proposals for SSO RO Unit

Source: www.psacunion.ca

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Update: PSAC Taking Pay Equity Dispute with SSO to an Independent Third Party

This summer the PSAC became aware that SSO’s pay equity settlement calculations failed to include paid leaves, overtimes rates, full compensation for designated paid holidays and other forms of compensation.  After numerous members filed appeals stating that they believed there was an error in the calculations of their payments, the PSAC and SSO began discussions in an effort to resolve this dispute.  Unfortunately, these discussions have not been able to resolve the pay equity dispute affecting between 20,000 and 25,000 current and former members who worked for SSO between 1985 and 2013.

While the purpose of the pay equity settlement was to remedy a long-standing discriminatory wage rate, SSO is unwilling to pay their female dominated workforce what the PSAC feels they are entitled to in the settlement. Rest assured, the PSAC will continue to fight for pay equity and is committed to standing up for members and former members.  As a result, the PSAC will be taking this dispute to an independent 3rd party for a final and binding decision.   Our members and former members have waited long enough for their discriminatory wage rate to be adjusted and deserve to be appropriately compensated.

In the meantime, Statistics Canada will continue to gather information and process payments. Once a decision has been reached, we will communicate the outcome to all those affected.

 

 

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PSAC and Treasury Board sign collective agreements for PA, EB, TC and SV

After much delay on the part of the employer, Treasury Board and PSAC have finally signed collective agreements for the PA, EB, TC and SV bargaining units on June 14, 2017. This is the result of significant pressure from our union.

These agreements, which cover over 85,000 workers in the federal public service, were ratified by the membership in April. Since then, PSAC had been pushing the employer to sign the agreements.

Letter sent to Trudeau; ULP complaint threatened

Last week, due to the excessive delay, PSAC National President Robyn Benson sent a letter to the Prime Minister. She expressed her disappointment and urged him to compel Treasury Board to set a date for signing.

PSAC also told Treasury Board that further delays would result in an unfair labour practice (ULP) complaint being filed with the labour board.

 

Source: www.psacunion.ca