Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of our fallen Brothers, Peace Officers in Moncton. We pray for the safety of our members from New Brunswick, their community and those who work on the ground to protect the lives of Canadians.
You can make a donation or buy a “Moncton Proud” t-shirt for which all proceeds go to the children of the fallen officers.
It is our position that CBSA’s communications concerning the arming of officers misinformed employees of their rights under both our contract and federal law. Au cours des dernières semaines, l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada (ASFC) a tenté à maintes reprises de miner les droits de ses employés, membres du groupe FB du SDI/AFPC.
La position de l’AFPC est claire : l’Agence a transmis des renseignements trompeurs à ses employés au sujet de leurs droits prévus dans la convention collective et la législation fédérale.
PSAC is pleased to report that the Federal Court of Appeal has today unanimously upheld the groundbreaking decision of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The decision found the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) discriminated against PSAC member, Fiona Johnstone by failing to accommodate her family obligations.
Ms Johnstone worked as a Border Services Officer at CBSA, requiring a fixed-shift schedule to arrange for child care. The employer refused to consider her request, given its view that it had no obligation under the Canadian Human Rights Act to accommodate her personal choices around childcare.
PSAC supported Ms Johnstone throughout this lengthy human rights and Federal Court battle.
In upholding the decision of the Tribunal, the Court of Appeal rejected the narrow approach to family status accommodation argued by the government. The Court confirmed that human rights legislation is to be interpreted in a broad and liberal manner and that family status includes child care and other legal family obligations.
The Court emphasized that there should be no hierarchy of rights, such that the test for family status accommodation was more difficult to meet than the other grounds of discrimination. Instead, employers are required to conduct a case-by-case analysis with a view to accommodating the particular needs of individual employees.
PSAC wishes to congratulate Fiona on yet another win in this long legal saga which advances the law for all Canadian workers.
The PSAC is particularly pleased that this is a meaningful victory for all working families in Canada.
Recently CBSA sent an email notice to employees at CBSA promoting a “Workplace Wellness and Productivity Strategy for federal government employees”. This notice promoted a new employer strategy for managing sick leave and long-term disability across the federal public service, but it failed to mention one very important fact: this new strategy has not been negotiated with our union.
PSAC and CIU have not agreed to the employer’s strategy. The current sick leave and disability systems remain in place. No changes have been made to our collective agreement.
Any modification to the current sick leave system must be negotiated with our union. Changes cannot be unilaterally imposed by the employer – no matter how badly they may wish to do so. And the national leadership of both PSAC and CIU have stated that we will be fighting to defend our sick leave provisions in the coming round of bargaining.
Negotiations have yet to begin between PSAC and Treasury Board. CBSA is once again spreading misinformation. We are consulting our legal counsel to determine if additional legal action may be taken against CBSA for this latest communication.
Union also filing suit in Federal Court over right to strike.
Over the last several weeks CBSA has been attempting to undermine the legal rights of CIU/PSAC members in the FB bargaining unit.
It is our position that CBSA’s communications concerning the arming of officers misinformed employees of their rights under both our contract and federal law. We also believe that CBSA’s recent arming communications represented an attempt to intimidate, coerce and harass employees.
We will uphold our rights.
As a result, in addition to the filing of a policy grievance, PSAC will be filing both an Unfair Labour Practice complaint with the Public Service Labour Relations Board, as well as a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over CBSA’s recent communications concerning the arming initiative.
Defending the right to strike
Both CBSA and Treasury Board have recently expanded the list of designated positions (ESAs) in an effort to remove our right to strike. PSAC has already filed a constitutional challenge in response to the government’s passing of Bill C-4 last December. Our union also recently filed suit with Federal Court and submitted a complaint with the PSLRB over Treasury Board’s stacking of the designations list and the government’s disregard for previous Labour Board decisions concerning FB designations.
We will update as things progress. Please see your union representative or Branch President with any questions.
