Tag Archives: négos

PA Group – Public Interest Commission: PSAC continues pushing for fair deal

The Public Interest Commission (PIC) hearings for the Program and Administrative Services (PA) and common issues tables wrapped up this weekend. The hearings are the first of eight scheduled in the next few months for nearly 140,000 PSAC members who are still without a new collective agreement.

At the hearing, PSAC representatives put forward our demands for a fair contract that delivers reasonable wage increases and the working conditions that make balancing family and work possible.

Now that PSAC and the employer have provided their respective submissions, we can expect to see a report with the commission’s recommendations for a settlement early in the new year. But we won’t wait for this report to secure an agreement. Between now and then we’ll continue to negotiate and mobilize for the fair contract PSAC members deserve.

We’re going to continue pushing for a deal that provides fair wage increases that cover the rising cost of living, improvements to work-life balance, and equitable compensation for the Phoenix pay disaster.

Once the PIC report is issued, the PA group, which includes 71,000 members, will be in a position to take a strike vote if we still haven’t reached an agreement with Treasury Board on our outstanding issues.

We’ll continue to provide updates over the coming days and weeks, including a detailed analysis of the union and the employer’s submissions at the hearing.

The next PIC hearing – for the Education & Library Sciences (EB) group – takes place December 9-12 in Ottawa.

Read the submissions to the Public Interest Commission:

The original version of this article was first posted on the PSAC website.

Bargaining and Phoenix: PSAC launches ad campaign targeting Trudeau and new Minister

As more than 140,000 PSAC members are still without new contracts or fair compensation for the Phoenix pay system disaster, PSAC has launched an ad campaign targeting the Prime Minister and new Treasury Board president, Jean-Yves Duclos.

“In their first four years, the Liberal government failed Canada’s public service workers,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC national president. “With a new minority Parliament and a new Minister, we’re sending Justin Trudeau a clear mandate: deliver a fair contract for our members and fair compensation for this ongoing Phoenix nightmare.”

The government’s continued negligence is forcing PSAC members to ramp up their workplace action, leading to a potential strike. In its mandate letter to the government, PSAC is urging the Liberals to ensure the stability of the federal government for all Canadians by moving quickly to resolve these issues.

The ad campaign will feature online, radio and print ads across the country. Ads will begin rolling out today. Members can send the mandate letter to Trudeau and the Minister at hereforcanada.ca.

“Our members continue to show up to work every day to serve Canadians – despite all the problems they’ve endured because of Phoenix. They deserve better, and they are ready to fight for what they’re owed,” added Aylward.

“In the recent election, Trudeau promised to “build a stronger public service” – well, this is his opportunity to do that.”

The first of several Public Interest Committee hearings set up to mediate a deal between PSAC bargaining units and Treasury Board begins December 4.

Take action at hereforcanada.ca

Print ad: English | French

The original version of this article was first posted on the PSAC website.

Public Interest Commission (PIC) dates for PSAC government units

The Labour Board has announced Public Interest Commission (PIC) hearing dates for PSAC’s bargaining units representing federal government workers. See the following page for more information on the PIC, and for a list of hearing dates for each unit as well as the number of members affected. Note that the FB unit is still in talks, and is not at the PIC stage.

The CIU National Board of Directors supports our bargaining teams!

Today, in Ottawa, members (and observers) of the CIU National Board of Directors sent a clear message of support to our PSAC-CIU FB and Treasury Board bargaining teams. Despite the bargaining process being at a stand still due to the federal elections, we are proud of the work accomplished by our Brothers and Sisters who sit at the bargaining tables. We know that they’ll continue to hold the employer’s feet to the fire and push for a fair deal!

FB team denounces disgraceful CBSA discipline video during negotiations

Our FB bargaining team called on Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) management to retract a disgraceful video that threatens surveillance of members and harsh disciplinary measures.

The video, warning FB members that “discipline in the workplace happens” and “the consequences may surprise you,” reinforces the need for better protections against harassment and abuse of authority in the FB collective agreement.

Our Public Service Alliance of Canada-Customs and Immigration Union (PSAC-CIU) bargaining team also addressed issues around wages, medical notes, firearms and dog handlers and other key issues during negotiations with Treasury Board/CBSA September 17 to 19.

Discipline

With respect to discipline, our team denounced the recent video released by CBSA management on Atlas. We stated clearly to the employer that CBSA’s obsession with punishment and surveillance – as reflected in the video – is a serious problem, and that such tactics on the part of CBSA only serves to strengthen our union’s resolve to achieve better contract protections against harassment and abuse of authority in CBSA workplaces.

Medical notes and medical/dental appointments

In bargaining we reiterated our demands to protect against excessive management requests for medical notes and pushed for management to pay for medical notes. We also raised issues related to CBSA management’s intrusive questioning when employees take leave for medical and dental appointments.

Firearms and dog handlers

It came to light recently that CBSA has provided paid leave for clerks who volunteer to receive training for the handling of firearms. We pointed out the absurdity of not providing paid time for firearm practice for officers who are required to carry firearms when paid time is being provided for employees who volunteer for certain training. Our position in bargaining is that all officers required to carry a firearm should receive paid firearm practice time. We also again raised issues concerning compensation for dog handlers.

Name tags, telework

We provided additional evidence of the risks associated with requiring officers to wear name tags and explained our position that officers should not be required to provide their names. We also pointed out that the telework policy that has been implemented does not address the issues we’ve raised in bargaining and that we need language in our contract on the issue.

Wages

In light of recent analytical data that has come to light concerning members of the Inland, Intelligence and Investigations community, our team did not table wages this week as more time is needed to conduct our survey of the broader law enforcement community.

We are in the process of setting additional dates. We’ll be sure to update you when we have more information.

To review the package of proposals that we tabled and those of the employer, go to: psacunion.ca/fb-group.

We stand tall for law enforcement

Together as FBs, we’ve achieved incredible victories over the years. PSAC is the largest union in the federal public service, and one of the largest public sector unions in the country. No other union has more experience in bargaining and representation within the federal public service than PSAC and CIU.

We successfully won the right for Border Services Officers to be armed in 2006.
Since 2007, PSAC-CIU successfully negotiated a 48% increase in compensation for frontline BSO, including a 17.5% raise in 2018.
We won significant new rights for shift workers, including protections in the context of VSSA negotiations and seniority rights.

Standing together, we will continue to work together and hold the CBSA’s feet to the fire to ensure we can continue to make groundbreaking gains for FB members.

The original version of this article was first posted on the PSAC website.