The bargaining team representing the common issues for nearly 80,000 public service workers resumed contract negotiations with Treasury Board (TB) on October 10-11, but left the meetings disappointed and frustrated. TB negotiators have yet to table proposals on a number of issues they previously flagged for discussion, and came to the table with no response to most of PSAC’s proposals, which they have had since June.
Despite the Government’s inaction, PSAC’s bargaining team continued advancing our members’ interests and concerns on a number of key issues. They presented proposals on pay administration and Phoenix-related issues, mental health in the workplace, childcare, and a protocol for negotiating the terms and conditions of work for civilian members of the RCMP who are pay-matched to PSAC bargaining units.
Our Phoenix-related demands include:
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Employees are to be paid on time, and daily interest is to be paid to employees who do not receive their proper pay, based on the Bank of Canada’s daily compounded interest rate.
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No repayments of overpayments are to be made until all the employee’s pay issues have been resolved. Moreover, the repayment schedule will not exceed 10% of the employee’s net pay unless the employee opts for a larger amount.
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Rules around salary and benefit advances, and language providing for accountant and financial management counselling for employees negatively impacted by Phoenix.
PSAC’s bargaining team put Treasury Board on notice that for the next common issues bargaining session scheduled for the first week of December, we expect government negotiators to table the remainder of their proposals, and to finally start negotiating seriously.
This week’s bargaining session included elected teams representing members from the Program & Administrative Services (PA), Technical Services (TC), Operations Services (SV) , and Education & Library Science (EB) groups, whose collective agreements expired this summer.
Bargaining sessions for each specific group will be held on October 16-17.
A version of this article was posted on the PSAC website.
