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Phoenix Issue: Minister Foote finally agrees to meet with PSAC

Fix Phoenix Pay System Logo

Yesterday, the PSAC sent National President Jean-Pierre Fortin the following link regarding the Phoenix system:  Minister Foote finally agrees to meet PSAC after repeated requests

By now, we are all familiar with the problems related to the Phoenix pay system and know that some CIU members have been affected. On behalf of all CIU members, Brother Jean-Pierre Fortin wishes to recognize the extraordinary efforts of our PA group colleagues in the Pay and Benefits Section who have been dealing with this difficult situation since mid-April.

Even if the new pay system will not allow them to fix problems immediately, they are doing everything they can to process emergency salary advances and ensure their sisters and brothers are paid.

True solidarity!

Remote Processing of Travellers: National VP and 1st VP meet with Hamilton members

Jean-Pierre Fortin and Mark Weber with members from Hamilton Branch

On August 8, 2016, CIU Hamilton Branch members met with National President Jean-Pierre Fortin and 1st National Vice-President Mark Weber, who were seeking to familiarize themselves with the Agency’s Telephone Reporting Centre System, used for the remote processing of travellers.

In January 18, 2016, CBSA launched a pilot project which allows Hamilton based officers to process travellers crossing at Morses Line, Quebec, some 700 km away.

Brothers Fortin and Weber were pleased to receive the feedback and comments of CIU members who process travellers using the telephone reporting system, and who could provide them with first-hand information about the ins and outs of remote processing.

Phoenix system privacy breach unacceptable, must be addressed immediately by the government

Fix Phoenix Pay System Logo

Officials at Public Services Procurement Canada were aware that the Phoenix pay system might cause privacy breaches as early as January 2016, according to media reports released yesterday.

Minister Foote acknowledged last night that the private information of thousands of public service workers has been shared with close to 70,000 staff.

“This is serious and unacceptable. The private information of our members and all public service workers should not be in the hands of anyone who does not need it,” said PSAC National President, Robyn Benson.

“The government must let public service employees know immediately about what personal information has been shared and how they can take steps to protect their identities.”

“I am writing to the Privacy Commissioner immediately, as well as the Prime Minister and Minister Foote, to express our alarm.”

Government already aware of privacy concerns

The government was aware as early as January 2016 that there were grave privacy concerns with the Phoenix pay system. Despite this, the government consistently told employees that their privacy was fully protected.

PSAC shared privacy concerns

When we shared our concerns about privacy protection last May 2016, PSPC assured us that a Privacy Impact Assessment was completed and all privacy concerns had been addressed.  It now appears that some aspect of this process was deeply flawed.

PSAC calling on the government for immediate action

* Information has be shared with all public service employees about what personal information has been shared and how they can take steps to protect their identity.

* A hotline must be created to address individual members concerns about privacy issues, staffed with knowledgeable agents.

* The government must commit to approving compensation for any employee who has incurred costs because of privacy violations.

“PSPC has consistently refused to listen to the PSAC and other unions with regards to problems with the Phoenix pay system, even though our concerns have been proven valid time and time again. 80,000 employees are experiencing issues with their pay. That is a staggering number,” concluded Benson.

This article was originally published on the PSAC website. 

Vote to stop the cuts

Canada’s border security jobs are being cut. This makes all Canadians vulnerable. Harper’s Conservatives are cutting public services across the country, without regard for the safety and welfare of millions of Canadians.

Get the facts

– The government plans to eliminate almost 1,100 positions at the Canada Border Services Agency by 2017, cuts that include front-line border workers, intelligence officials and sniffer-dog teams. (Source: CBSA Reports on Plans and Priorities)

– The government is cutting staff despite an increase in drug busts by CBSA security at the borders and indications of a rise in illegal weapons entering Canada.

– Government data show that more than 3,000 flights over the last two years have failed to provide complete passenger information to the CBSA because smaller airports have no Border Services Officers.

– Fewer Border Services Officers have meant a sharp decline in the number of fake passports being detected at ports of entry. (Source: La Presse)

PA Bargaining: “Optimism Quickly Fades”

PA Bargaining

Following the announcement that the Liberal government is repealing sections of the anti-union Bill C-4, enacted by the Harper Conservatives, our PA Bargaining Team returned to the negotiation table, hopeful that the Treasury Board had a new mandate to engage in serious collective bargaining. Any optimism we had was dashed almost immediately by the employer’s opening statement that they were willing to make some minor movements only on the condition that the union remove a significant number of our demands from the table.

Child care: Our bargaining team invited Morna Ballantyne, PSAC’s Special Projects Officer responsible for the union’s childcare campaign, to outline the need for affordable childcare. Her presentation was informative and persuasive. We are looking to develop a joint national committee with the employer to assess child care needs of federal public sector workers and make recommendations on how to best meet those needs.

Wages and other demands: We presented our complete economic package, as well as language on whistleblowing, rest breaks during overtime, and language on acting pay, workplace violence and electronic surveillance. We also reviewed all of our outstanding issues with the employer.

We signed off on minor changes to the Personal Leave and Volunteer Leave articles, allowing employees to take the leave in half days.

We’ll be back at the bargaining table in September. If you see your Member of Parliament in the summer, please tell him or her to keep their hands off our sick leave. And if that MP is a Liberal, please remind him or her that the Liberals were elected on a promise of showing respect to the public service. It’s time to change their bargaining mandate from the one they inherited from Stephen Harper.

Sick Leave: Our position on the employer’s short-term disability plan remains unchanged, but we continue to seek either a renewal or improvements to the current sick leave regime.

In a meeting this week, the Coordinated Issues Committee, which includes representatives from all five PSAC bargaining teams for the core public administration, said that any short-term disability plan must reside in the collective agreement.

Stay informed and get involved: Our bargaining team will keep you informed throughout this process. In the coming weeks, we will advise you of the next round of bargaining dates. Watch this page for updates and be sure to talk to your colleagues about the importance of supporting our union throughout this process.

Get involved and spread the word, so we can keep the pressure on the employer and fight back against concessions. See the PSAC website for information regarding bargaining proposals.

FB Team Spends 7 Days in Contract Talks  

FB Bargaining

Starting Friday June 17, our FB Bargaining Team spent 7 days in negotiations with our employer. Here’s a summary of issues that were discussed during that period:

  • Pension Commitment: At the outset the Treasury Board indicated its position that collective bargaining is not an appropriate venue for pension reform discussions and that the concerns raised by PSAC and CIU with respect to an early retirement plan should happen elsewhere. Our Team made our union’s position clear – we seek a written commitment from both Treasury Board and the CBSA supporting the introduction of a retirement plan that is consistent with what is in place at other law enforcement agencies.
  • Wages: We proposed a market adjustment to take effect the first day of our contract that would peg the FB wage scale to that of an RCMP Constable 1st Class. We have also tabled a paid meal period, consistent with standards common in the broader law enforcement community.
  • Hours of Work – Shift Work and Compressed Work Weeks: This past week, we made proposals to enhance rights and protections for shift workers, including the elimination of potential ‘6 and 2’ schedules being implemented by management. We are also seeking fairer rules with respect to employees having the opportunity to relocate to different ports. With respect to day workers, we have proposed protections against management unilaterally revoking compressed work weeks.
  • Increased Protections: We tabled proposals to enhance protections in our collective agreement for front-line officers in the context of firearm recertification and control defence tactics training. We also re-iterated the importance of new protections against CBSA management in the context of discipline.
  • Workforce Adjustment: We discussed the questions raised by the employer on our proposed changes to the Workforce Adjustment Appendix and continue to strive to make improvements. We reiterated our position against the contracting out of work. Many unions have identified this issue as a major concern in this round of bargaining.
  • Sick Leave: Our position on the employer’s Short Term Disability Plan remains unchanged but we continue to seek either a renewal or improvements to the current sick leave regime.

We indicated to management that we are expecting answers from them on key issues that we’ve raised in this round of bargaining. For more information concerning FB negotiations and our next scheduled bargaining dates, be sure visit the FB Group bargaining section on the PSAC website.

Download the PDF version of this update (bilingual document).

Take Part in the June 8 National Day of Action!

With major issues still on the bargaining table and seemingly little interest from the Employer in reaching a fair agreement, the five PSAC bargaining teams ‎(FB, PA, TC, SV, and EB) have agreed to hold a National Day of Action on June 8, 2016 in the form of coast-to-coast lunch hour pickets. The CFIA bargaining team, CFIA members, and National Joint Council Unions will also be participating.

Our goal is to show visible support for the bargaining teams and make sure that the government, Treasury Board and all Employers, including CBSA, know that members are mobilized and expect more from them on issues such as 25 & Out, Sick leave, and Protection in the context of discipline.

CIU/PSAC encourages everyone to participate but recognizes the challenges associated with a lunch hour picket for shift working members. If it is not possible for you to attend a lunch time event being held at your work location, we invite you to wear your orange badge and be creative in showing support for your bargaining teams. No workplace is too big or too small to participate! Please contact your Branch President for more information regarding the Day of Action.

PA Bargaining: “PA Bargaining Team Tackles Many Fronts”

PA Bargaining

Child care: In negotiations this week with Treasury Board, our PA bargaining team called for the employer to join PSAC in a national joint committee to tackle the issue of affordable and accessible child care for all federal public service workers.

Public Works has been slowly ending subsidies for day care centres operating in several federal government buildings across the country, in some cases for more than two decades.

As an example, the Tupper Tots daycare in Ottawa closed its doors in 2014 after its rental subsidy was pulled. Today, the daycare at the Guy Favreau building in Montreal, and several others, are in jeopardy of closing, leaving potentially hundreds of parents who are federal government workers without childcare.

With a proposal that is common to all PSAC Treasury Board bargaining units, our bargaining team called on the employer to come together with the union over the life of the new agreement to examine options for providing appropriate day care facilities.

Definition of family: In a related vein, the bargaining team also reviewed with Treasury Board our proposal to expand the definition of family. We also proposed to remove language in the definition prohibiting an employee from accessing bereavement leave or family-related leave for any other relative for whom the employee has a duty of care unless that relative resides in the same household. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has found such language to be discriminatory, although Treasury Board is appealing that decision. We pointed out that the NJC Relocation Directive has already been amended to remove this discriminatory language.

Professional development: The PA team also proposed a Memorandum of Understanding for professional development of Parole and Program Officers at the Correctional Service of Canada. We explained the need for these members to have appropriate opportunities for professional training and development.

Leave: We also pressed for a Compensatory Leave provision as per the provision signed off at the TC table a full year ago, allowing employees up to 18 months to use compensatory leave before it is cashed out.

We also offered a Memorandum of Understanding requiring the employer to disclose what the operational needs are, should it refuse leave requests due to “operational requirements.

Whistleblowing: We also discussed the need for whistleblowing language to be enshrined in the Collective Agreement to protect employees who report wrongdoing.

Sick leave: Our position is that we continue to seek either a renewal or improvements to the current sick leave regime.

General economic increases: All PSAC tables proposed a general economic increase of 3% per year this week. This is in addition to the allowances and market adjustments that our team has or will be making in subsequent bargaining sessions.

Workforce adjustment: We discussed our proposed changes to the Workforce Adjustment Appendix. The employer’s bargaining team had a significant number of questions about our proposals that we will respond to in our next meeting. We reiterated our position against the contracting out of work. Many unions have identified this issue as a major concern in this round of bargaining.

See the PSAC website for information regarding bargaining proposals.

Federal public service unions united to defend collective bargaining rights, file complaint with International Labour Organization (ILO)

Canada’s 18 federal public service unions met earlier this week to decide their next move in response to the tabling of Division 20 of Bill C-59, the Budget Implementation Act (BIA), which gives the government the authority to unilaterally amend the sick leave provisions of the collective agreements covering employees of the core public service. Today, the unions are also jointly filing a complaint with the Geneva-based ILO asserting that the measures included in the December 2013 omnibus BIA – Bill C-4 – contravene ILO conventions that protect free collective bargaining and the right to strike.

“Our solidarity pact remains in place. We are united and even more determined to defend the constitutional rights of our members,” said Ron Cochrane, the union Co-Chair of the National Joint Council. “We are taking all steps at our disposal including appealing to the body that enforces international conventions on labour rights.”

The unions emerged from their meeting with a comprehensive coordinated legal plan to respond to bills C-4 and C-59 and stop the continuing attack on the fundamental constitutional right to fair collective bargaining, and a common approach to bargaining to push back the federal government’s latest move to impose a predetermined outcome on negotiations.

“Bill C-59 is all about trying to force us to accept a “go to work sick” plan by threatening to impose it if we do not agree,” Cochrane said. “It runs completely contrary to the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) and it’s a violation of the collective bargaining rights that citizens have under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And, like Bill C-4, it contravenes international conventions. We will not be intimidated by the federal government’s bully tactics.”

The 18 federal public service unions have also agreed to plan coordinated actions to mobilize federal public service employees in the face of the assault on collective bargaining rights.

The Federal Bargaining Agents of the National Joint Council are:

Push continues for ’25 and Out’ Retirement Plan: Campaign for pension reform underway on several fronts

FB Bargaining

Last month, the Public Service Pension Advisory Committee (PSPAC) met to discuss retirement-related issues in the public service. The PSPAC is the body that provides input concerning the managing of public service pension funds. It includes several unions and Treasury Board representatives.

In the meeting the PSAC successfully pushed to have early retirement reform for Border Services employees and Department of Defence Firefighters (also PSAC members) prioritized to be addressed by the committee. Dates for follow-up meetings have not yet been set.

In a recent meeting with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, CIU National President Jean-Pierre Fortin raised the need for there to be pension reform for CIU-PSAC members working at CBSA. The same message was communicated in a recent meeting with newly-named CBSA President Linda Lizotte-MacPherson.

PSAC National President Robyn Benson and Jean-Pierre Fortin also spoke recently with Treasury Board President Scott Brison to impress upon the government the importance of this issue to our union and membership.

At the bargaining table, our FB Bargaining Team continues to push for a commitment from CBSA and Treasury Board in support of an early retirement regime for CBSA employees. In light of the work that we do, and the employer’s legal duty to accommodate, we believe that such a retirement arrangement is not only in the interest of employees of the FB group, but also the Agency.

We call on CBSA and the Treasury Board to support the amending of our pension plan so that we might have access to the same retirement benefit as other federal workers who are required to maintain similar physical standards. It’s in the best interests of everyone involved – union members, the government and CBSA.

We’ll be sure to provide update as things progress. For more information, contact your Branch President or go to ciu-sdi.ca or psacunion.ca/employer/fb-group.

Download the PDF version of this update (bilingual document).

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