Following reports of Treasury Board’s plan to unilaterally change telework agreements, the FB bargaining team used their December 13-15 bargaining dates to remind the employer that modifying working conditions without union consent while in negotiations is prohibited under federal legislation.
After talks wrapped, the federal government announced their direction for all core administration workers to return to the office 2-3 days per week by March 31, 2023. While this doesn’t impact workers at CBSA or other agencies for now, we will continue to emphasize the importance of enshrining telework in our contracts to ensure requests are not unreasonably denied. We also pointed out to the employer that this initiative demonstrates yet again that Treasury Board and CBSA have nothing but disdain for those who work for Canadians day in and day out.
We also addressed our proposals to ensure the introduction of new technology such as PIK machines, E-Gates, and ArriveCAN does not replace trained officers or put public safety at risk. We support technological change when it supports our work, but that’s often not the case. PSAC has already filed a complaint with the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board regarding this issue.
Finally, the team raised the need for an increase to the shift premium — particularly given PSAC’s recent success negotiating increased premiums for other federal units — and discussed our proposals to streamline the grievance procedure.
We will table wage proposals at a future session once we have received payroll data from the employer.
Next steps
The team will return to the table again in January. Read our bargaining proposals below:
Please be sure to keep your contact information up to date to receive all the latest updates about bargaining. If you have any questions, please contact your branch president or your PSAC regional office.
This article was first posted on the PSAC website.
