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PSAC takes Treasury Board collective agreement signing delays to the Prime Minister

Robyn Benson, National President of PSAC, has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking him to address the delay on the government’s part in signing four collective agreements.

“I believe that your promise to treat public servants with respect must be demonstrated beyond simple words,” said Benson in her letter to the Prime Minister. “I urge you to compel Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to set a fixed date for the signing of all the ratified agreements within the coming weeks.”

These agreements cover the working conditions of over 85,000 PSAC members who work in the federal public services.

The complete text of the letter can be found here.

 

Source: http://psacunion.ca/psac-takes-treasury-board-collective-agreement

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Federal Court Upholds UNE Members’ Salary Protection Grievance Win

On May 24, 2017, a judicial review of the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board’s (PSLREB)  decision  on salary protection was rejected before a Federal Court of Appeal.  The decision of the adjudicator stands and affected employees are officially entitled to full salary protection under the PSAC and Treasury board collective agreements.

A long-awaited decision was handed down by the PSLREB on July 4, 2016. It upheld the right to salary protection for members who transferred to the Department of Canadian Heritage from the National Capital Commission (NCC) in September 2013.

“We are very pleased that the Federal Court of Appeal has decided in favour of our members,” said UNE national president Doug Marshall. “Our members waited a long time for the PSLREB’s decision and now that the appeal is out of the way, employees have closure on this grievance.”

The policy grievance, filed by the PSAC on December 12, 2013, involved 44 members who were transferred by government order.  Although the collective agreement provided that their wage rates would be protected upon transfer, the employer instituted a pay system that froze wages for up to three years, capped at $12,000 over the reclassified salary. After the three years, all employees faced a drop in salary.

For more information, you can read our previous articles on the grievance.

 

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Government delaying signing of new collective agreements

PSAC has been pushing the government to sign four collective agreements by the end of May, but the employer is insisting they won’t be ready until mid-June at the earliest.  These agreements, covering over 100,000 workers, were ratified by the membership in votes that concluded in April.

PSAC still waiting for drafts of agreements

At this time, the final drafts of the agreement for the Program and Administrative Services (PA) Group and the agreement for the Education and Library Science (EB) Group are just about finalized.

PSAC has yet to receive the draft agreements covering the Technical Services (TC) and Operational Services (SV) Groups, even though the employer has had months to get the drafts ready.

We are committed to reviewing the draft agreements and replying to the employer in less than three days.

Members have waited long enough

These agreements, which took over two and a half years to negotiate, do not go into effect until they are signed. PSAC believes our members, who have also spent the last year dealing with the Phoenix pay system debacle, have waited long enough.

We are continuing to pressure the employer to make this a priority and sign these agreements signed as soon as possible.

Source: psacunion.ca

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Bargaining session with SSO in June cancelled

At the request of the employer, the SSO bargaining session scheduled from June 13 to 15, 2017, has been cancelled due to changes on the employer’s bargaining team. The next bargaining session will be scheduled for the fall. In the meantime, we will continue to organize actions and hold events to remind our employer that we are Federal Public Servants and we deserve respect. Please join us. Your support helps us all to achieve gains at the bargaining table!

We want to keep you up-to-date on negotiations with SSO. Please sign up for email updates from PSAC. Make sure you check the box for Statistical Survey Operations.

You can also visit the UNE SSO news section at http://www.une-sen.org/press/?cat=18 and the PSAC website at psacunion.ca/sso-oes. 

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SSO Bargaining Update

Our bargaining team met with SSO during the week of May 1. The team started the week in caucus, where we had planned to review SSO’s proposals, but unfortunately the documents provided by our employer contained many errors and lacked clarity. This made it impossible for us to do our work of analyzing their proposals.

Tuesday, we were pleased to meet all members of the employer’s bargaining team. We communicated the problems with their proposals and the lack of professionalism this demonstrated. In response they requested the rest of the day to review their proposals, but first, SSO’s Director General Geoff Bowlby presented us with an overview of SSO operations.

Employer proposes concessions

The rest of the week, we heard from our employer about the changes proposed during this round of negotiations. The union is concerned about some of these proposals. SSO wants to restrict union leave and the participation of union representatives in solving problems in the workplace. SSO has proposed eliminating the requirement for management to provide operational justification when denying leave requests, a right we won in the last arbitration. There are also proposals to limit protections against harassment and discrimination, maternity-related job modification and leave, bereavement leave and family related leave. We have been clear with the employer that we will not negotiate concessions. We are at the table to negotiate improvements for our members.

Status as federal public servants

We need to tell you we encountered a serious underlying problem in meetings with our employer this week. During the last round of bargaining, our arbitral awards clearly stated that SSO employees are federal public servants, but throughout the week our employer repeatedly said that it does not acknowledge our status as public servants. The employer uses this argument to deny us working conditions comparable to other public servants, including those we work alongside at Statistics Canada.

Your local representatives will be contacting you soon about participating in our union’s activities to make it clear to SSO that we will not stand for this.

Source: http://psacunion.ca/

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Ratified Treasury Board agreements: What happens now?

Following the recent ratification of new agreements by the PA, SV, TC and EB Treasury Board groups, the following steps will be taken:

  • Signing of new collective agreements
  • Retro pay and implementation of wage and special monetary increases
  • Implementation of collective agreement provisions

Signing of new collective agreements

In the coming weeks, PSAC will meet with the employer to sign the new collective agreements. With the exception of wages, which are retroactive, the new negotiated provisions come into effect on date of signing, unless otherwise specified.

When will back pay (retroactive pay) be paid out to employees?

The employer has 150 days from the date of signing to adjust rates of pay and issue retroactive pay.

Who will get back pay for the negotiated economic increases?

PA: The new collective agreement is retroactive to June 21, 2014, expiring June 20, 2018. This means that you are entitled to back pay for the period of time you were employed and a PA member from June 21, 2014.

EB: The new collective agreement is retroactive to July 1st, 2014, expiring June 30, 2018. This means that you are entitled to back pay for the period of time you were employed and a EB member from July 1st, 2014.

TC: The new collective agreement is retroactive to June 22, 2014, expiring June 21, 2018. This means that you are entitled to back pay for the period of time you were employed and a TC member from June 22, 2014.

SV: The new collective agreement is retroactive to August 5, 2014, expiring August 4, 2018. This means that you are entitled to back pay for the period of time you were employed and an SV member from August 5, 2014.

Are increases to allowances retroactive?

Increases to allowances are not retroactive. The employer has 150 days after the date of signing to implement the changes and issue payment of the allowances.

When will the other provisions come into effect?

The employer has 150 days from the date of signing to implement the provisions of the new collective agreement.

Will the Phoenix pay system cause delays and problems with retro pay and wage adjustments?

Public Services and Procurement Canada has said they are prepared to implement retro pay and wage adjustments. Since the employer has 150 days from signing to pay out the retro, there should be time to address other Phoenix problems so that compensation staff can be freed up for this work. PSAC will also be working closely with government officials to help solve any problems that arise. We will keep you updated on any developments related to Phoenix and the implementation of wage increases.

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Dental Care Plan Negotiations

After an extensive survey of all members covered by the PSAC Public Service Dental Plan, we are going to the table to negotiate improvements to our Dental Plan. We have tabled our initial proposals and will be back at the table in May.

We expect for the Plan to be improved and updated to reflect your needs going forward.

This is a separate negotiations process from the one that we are using for our collective agreement.  If we are unable to get to an agreement, we have access to binding arbitration.

Click here to see the complete list of improvements tabled

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PSAC Members Ratify New Agreement With Treasury Board

Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada working for Treasury Board have accepted new collective agreements that contain no concessions for four bargaining units representing more than 100,000 workers.

The majority of members in the Program and Administrative (PA), Technical Services (TC), Operational Services (SV), and Education and Library Science (EB) bargaining units voted in favour of the new agreements.

“I am proud of our negotiating teams for standing strong during these two long, difficult years at the table,” said Robyn Benson, PSAC National President. “It is through the hard work and commitment of the members of our bargaining teams, along with the support and solidarity from the bargaining unit members, that we were able to reach these agreements.”

Significant breakthroughs

With these agreements, PSAC achieved some significant breakthroughs:

  • Sick leave: The sick leave articles of our collective agreements will remain unchanged. The parties have negotiated a Memorandum of Agreement to establish a Task Force to develop recommendations on measures to improve employee wellness.
  • Workforce adjustment: the most significant improvements to the Workforce Adjustment agreement since it was first signed as an appendix into PSAC collective agreements in 1998.
  • Helping workers meet family demands: It has been agreed that a committee will be established to look at childcare needs. Better family leave, including provisions for extended family, have also been negotiated.
  • Mental health task force: the memorandum that established the task force is also contained in this agreement. The MOU was agreed to earlier in the bargaining process, in 2015, and the task force has already been hard at work ever since

Monetary gains

The four-year collective agreements, which expire in 2018, provide for across-the-board annual wage increases of 1.25 per cent for each year, plus other wage adjustments made for specific bargaining units and classifications.

FB group

The Border Services (FB) group was unable to conclude a tentative agreement and is proceeding to a Public Interest Commission.

More information

For more information on the agreements:

For more information about what’s next:

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UNE Members at the National Arts Centre Vote in Favour of Strike Action

After almost a year of negotiations, about 100 workers who provide usher and box office services at the National Arts Centre have voted in favour of strike action. These members have been trying to reach a contract since June 2016 and have made no progress.

“While the NAC spends $100 million on renovations just in time for Canada’s 150th celebrations, we had hoped the employer would be committed to negotiate a fair contract that suitably compensates hard-working employees for the important work they do,” said Doug Marshall, national president of the Union of National Employees. “We will continue to support our members through this difficult negotiation process.”

The strike vote was held on April 4. More information will follow as it becomes available.

 

 

 

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PSAC and SSO exchange proposals

Our CAPI and CATI bargaining teams met with SSO March 17, 2017, to open this round of bargaining and exchange our initial proposals. Regrettably, the employer’s team was not even half there, which we told SSO was very disrespectful to us and to the bargaining process. We expect the employer will not continue to demonstrate this attitude as we pursue bargaining.

We had a very busy week. We spent three days reviewing our bargaining input from members across the country and doing the research necessary to prepare our proposals. We met with the employer for the initial exchange. As we always do, we began by exchanging non-monetary proposals.

You will find that we have “reserved” on a number of important issues. This means that we haven’t yet presented a proposal to the employer on these issues. We will do so once we have received information from SSO about our membership and, in some cases, had an opportunity to discuss these issues with the employer at the bargaining table.

We are focused on making improvements to:

  • Job security (incl. term and part-time employment)
  • Hours of work
  • Job classification
  • Protection from harassment

We also want to improve the processes for dealing with discipline and grievances. Proposals on other important issues include discrimination, leaves of absence (union-related, bereavement, family-related responsibilities, injury on duty), designated paid holidays, personal equipment costs, mental health, and a joint-learning program. We will not accept any concessions.

We had the pleasure of meeting with our Union of National Employees (UNE) President Doug Marshall while we were in Ottawa. We discussed current problems faced by our members in the workplace and he reiterated the union’s support for us making gains in this round of bargaining. We will meet to continue bargaining May 1-5. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact a member of our bargaining teams:

CAPI (Field Interviewers)                                    CATI (Regional Office Interviewers)

Wendy Kleywegt-Bowen (Kingston)                 Anna Goldfeld (Winnipeg)
Claude André Leduc (Montreal)                       Shalane Rooney (Sturgeon Falls)
Mary Anne Walker (Kitchener)                          Alice Vallée (Sherbrooke)
Linda Woods (Kelowna)

Erin Sirett, PSAC Negotiator
Julie Chiasson, PSAC Research Officer