After two years and eight months of negotiations, four final offers, petition drives, picketing, a final offer forced vote thrown out by court challenge, the filing of unfair labour practice complaints and a final, round-the-clock 28-hour bargaining session, our Bargaining Team reached an agreement with Treasury Board/CBSA at 11:00 am the morning of Tuesday October 22. Our FB Bargaining Team unanimously recommends ratification of our new agreement.
HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
The Tentative Agreement signed Tuesday morning contains significant improvements to our collective agreement, a testament to the fortitude and solidarity of PSAC/CIU membership at CBSA.
Our Three-Year Agreement Includes:
• Annual Increases for all employees of:
– 1.75% June 21, 2011
– 1.5% June 21, 2012
– 2.0 % June 21, 2013• As part of the settlement, all uniformed officers (including Inland Enforcement, Criminal Investigations and Regional Intelligence Officers) will receive an annual allowance of one-thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars beginning June 21, 2013, on top of the negotiated annual wage increases.
• All non-uniformed officers are to receive an annual allowance of one-thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars on top of the negotiated annual increases beginning June 21, 2013, plus a lump-sum one-time payment of five-hundred dollars at the date of signing.
• This means that all employees in the FB bargaining unit shall receive one-thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars in 2013, on top of annual wage increases.
• Seniority shall now be recognized for all shift workers, working under both VSSA and non-VSSA schedules.
• Seniority shall now be recognized for all workers – both shift and non-shift worker – for the purposes of vacation scheduling.
• Protections in the context of the arming initiative, including an obligation on the part of the employer to make every reasonable effort to find placement opportunity for employees not hired with firearms as a condition of employment that are unsuccessful on firearm certification, as well as new joint union-management committees to discuss firearm participant selection and placement.
• Bereavement leave shall now be seven consecutive days instead of five.
• Employees may now use a maximum of 7.5 hours of Family-Related Responsibility Leave for school functions, legal appointments and emergency child care.
• Consistent with all other Treasury Board settlements, this tentative agreement includes the deletion of the severance provisions for employees who quit or retire. Under the new tentative agreement, severance will still be paid if you are laid off but would otherwise no longer accumulate. Any monies currently owing to you under the existing severance provisions would be paid out or may be banked for future use. Employees shall continue to accumulate severance until the official signing of the collective agreement. No other Treasury Board group held out as long as the FB Bargaining team did to maintain our severance benefit, or to get something in exchange, which we did.
This agreement is consistent with settlements reached by other federal law enforcement workers and maintains the wage parity that we achieved in the previous round of negotiations. It is an agreement that was hard fought and the product of the solidarity of PSAC/CIU members working at CBSA from coast to coast to coast. In terms of compensation, scheduling rights and arming protections, this agreement is dramatically better than the final offer submitted to our team in the spring and that the government attempted to force a vote on this past summer.
Our Bargaining Team unanimously recommends ratification of our new agreement.
For more information about our new contract contact your Branch President, a member of our Bargaining Team or go to www.psacunion.ca. A full explanation of the new agreement, and a copy of the new language, will be provided at ratification meetings.
Ratification meetings will be scheduled and held over the coming period. Check with the PSAC Regional Offices, or go to the PSAC website for further information on dates, times and locations. We’ll be sure to update as things progress.
