Author Archives: Pierre St-Jacques

Phoenix: PSAC Negotiates New Measures to Attract and Retain Compensation Advisors

Fix Phoenix Pay System Logo

PSAC has negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with Treasury Board to address recruitment and retention of compensation advisors. The aim is to ensure the government has enough staff resources to deal with the many problems related to the Phoenix pay system.

Recruitment and retention incentives

To address the staff shortage, we have negotiated measures to improve recruitment and retention of compensation advisors who work under Treasury Board. The measures include:

  • Compensation advisor retention allowances for current staff, new recruits, and former retirees who return to work
  • Improvements to overtime, carry-over or cash-out of vacation leave, and compensatory leave
  • An independent job content and classification process for all PSPC compensation Advisor employees at the AS 1, 2 & 3 levels

Shortage of compensation staff

When the former Conservative government consolidated the federal public service pay system, hundreds of compensation advisors were laid off. The expertise and experience of those workers was lost. When Phoenix went live in 2016, there were not enough staff to deal with the problems it caused.

Although the government has tried to bring back former compensation staff, the pay centre in Miramichi and the satellite pay offices remain understaffed.

“We hope that these measures will bring in more compensation staff so that Phoenix-related problems are addressed more efficiently. All federal public service workers deserve to be paid on time and correctly,” said Robyn Benson, PSAC National President.

Additional information:

A version of this article was also published on the PSAC website.

Synthetic Opioids: Safety Procedures and Policies

Opioid Crisis

There have been few threats over the years that have impacted our members as greatly as the fentanyl crisis. As Canada’s first line of defense, there is perhaps no greater testament to their jobs’ importance than the lives saved by intercepting these substances. We have seen members exposed and sadly, their health has been affected. Our work makes coming into contact with highly toxic substances inevitable and as such, is of great concern to us all.

Your Policy Health and Safety committee has been working diligently with the CBSA to develop mandatory safety procedures, controls, training, first aid and personal protective equipment. These were posted on Atlas on July 13, 2017. The many concerns and recommendations we received from the field are included in what’s been produced and we are confident that these measures will keep our members safe. This is the culmination of months of work, countless drafts and consultation with experts in both the scientific and law enforcement communities. We continue to work on these procedures with the CBSA and you’ll surely see additions to what’s currently available.

We urge all of our members to remind one another of the importance of following these safety procedures. While it is unquestionably Management’s responsibility to ensure that all health and safety measures are being followed, it is our duty to do all we can to keep our Sisters and Brothers safe. Synthetic opioids have fundamentally changed how we must act and how we must think. The idea of ‘safety first’ has always been present, the potential consequences of not consistently making this so in practice could be disastrous.

Please review the documents available through Atlas in the Policy Suite for Examination of Highly Toxic Substances and ensure that you take all of the mandatory training.

Update on Collective Agreement Implementation for SV and TC Groups

Bargaining

In early July, the employer began the salary update for members of the Operational Services Group (SV) and the Technical Services Group (TC).

Given that employees are paid in arrears, members in the SV and TC groups should have begun seeing new rates starting with the July 26 payday. Your new salary rate should now be reflected in your pay. If you find any mistakes in your pay, contact the human resources unit in your department and notify your PSAC union representative.

Retroactive payments will be issued over the full timeframe of the implementation schedule, up to November 11, 2017. Some SV and TC members may receive one full retro payment; others may receive it in multiple payments over multiple pay periods, due to the need for manual processing of some transactions.

Please continue to monitor updates at psacunion.ca/tc and psacunion.ca/sv.

A version of this article was also published on the PSAC website.

 

Update on Collective Agreement Implementation for PA Group

PA Bargaining

Over the course of the August 5, 2017 weekend, the employer began the salary update for members of the Programs and Administrative Services Group (PA).

Even though changes are being made to Phoenix and HR systems the adjustments will not immediately appear on employees’ pay. Given that employees are paid in arrears, they will begin seeing new rates starting with the August 23 payday. Your new salary rate should be reflected on the August 23 pay. If you find any mistakes in your pay, contact the human resources unit in your department and notify your PSAC union representative.

Retroactive payments will be issued over the full timeframe of the implementation schedule, up to November 11, 2017. Some PA group members may receive one full retro payment; others may receive it in multiple payments over multiple pay periods, due to the need for manual processing of some transactions.

Please continue to monitor updates at psacunion.ca/pa.

A version of this article was also published on the PSAC website.

PSAC/CIU to Take CBSA Before Labour Board

FB Bargaining

In negotiations, our PSAC/CIU bargaining team for the FB group has made proposals to Treasury Board and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) concerning shift work, scheduling and part-time work.

The law says that all matters subject to negotiation are frozen until such time as the parties reach a new agreement, are in a legal strike position or until an arbitration award is issued. This means that our current terms and conditions are frozen. The same rules also apply with respect to changes that could have a direct impact on matters under negotiation or potentially subject to negotiation.

Recently the CBSA has announced that it is proceeding with a change to its part-time policy to increase part-time employment. CIU has made clear that it is opposed to such changes, and PSAC at the bargaining table has indicated that our position is to improve job and income security for PSAC/CIU members at CBSA. An increase in part-time employment runs contrary to this objective.

Given CBSA’s plan to proceed with the changes, PSAC legal counsel is in the process of filing a freeze-violation charge with the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB).

CBSA management cannot do whatever it wants. We will uphold our rights.

We will be sure to update as things progress. Please contact your CIU Branch President with any questions.

A version of this article was also published on the PSAC website.