FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                  September 17, 2001

OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) negotiating teams for the Operational Services Group (Table 2) and the Education and Library Science Group (Table 5) are recommending acceptance of settlements reached with Treasury Board this past weekend. The negotiating teams for the Program and Administrative Services Group (Table 1) and the Technical Services Group (Table 3) are recommending rejection of the employer’s proposed terms of settlement.

"Our negotiating teams were exceedingly frustrated, as I was, with the government’s refusal to improve the general economic increases that it tabled in late August," says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel. "The economic increases simply do not do enough to restore the purchasing power our members lost during the 1990s. However, the general and strategic strike action which our members took for two more weeks has added an additional $114-million to the package as well as some breakthroughs negotiated exclusively for PSAC members."

"We know that conditions have changed in the last week," added Turmel. "Canadians rely on our members in difficult times and our members in turn are committed to providing services in these circumstances."

Some of the new benefits included in the proposed settlement for Tables 2 and 5 and the employer’s proposed terms of settlement for Tables 1 and 3 are:

• Two additional days off with pay per year for all members covered by the settlements. One day may be taken for any reason, the second allows members to spend a day helping out in their communities. This time off is worth 0.8%.
• A Memorandum of Understanding, including a $750,000 budget and a restricted timeline, on how to improve the status and job security of term employees. PSAC has made this issue a serious part of the public service reform agenda.
• A new $7-million training budget for joint training on issues such as labour/management relations, employment equity, the Universal Classification Standard (UCS), collective agreement interpretation and human rights. The budget represents approximately 0.2% of payroll for the members affected.
• In addition to the general economic increase of 3.2%, 2.8% and 2.5% in each year of a three-year agreement, there will be other adjustments in wages and salaries.

• The rates of pay for members in the AS, PM, and IS groups will be harmonized after the application of the first year increase. This provides an additional average increase of 1.7% .
• The number of zones for Operational Services Group (Table 2) members is reduced retroactively to the first day of the agreement, resulting in an additional $10-million for the members affected.

• A special allowance of $2,000 which will be paid to Fisheries officers this year and next has been made pensionable.
• An improved Lay Day factor should ensure that Ships’ Crews members no longer have to use vacation leave in order to earn a full year’s pay.

Other improvements already negotiated include the addition of two salary increments for Welfare Programmes members, new captive time provisions affecting members who travel, a reduction to 3 pay zones for members still receiving regional rates of pay, a signing bonus of up to $1000 for Operational Services Group members depending on how they are affected by the reduction in zones, and the introduction of new allowances and increases in others.

Strike action has been suspended pending a vote of the members in all four Groups on either the settlement or the employer’s proposed terms of settlement, depending on the Group. This process will take approximately six weeks. When the vote has been completed, members in each Group will either have a new collective agreement or remain without an agreement and be in a legal position to continue strike action.

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For information: Nycole Turmel, PSAC National President, (613) 560-4330

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