OTTAWA - A majority of the 87,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) in Treasury Board Tables 1, 2, 3 and 5, have voted in favour of their tentative agreements and the employer’s proposed terms of settlement. The Program and Administrative Services Group (Table 1) and Technical Services Group (Table 3) voted 80 % and 79 % respectively in favour of the employer’s proposed terms of settlement. The Operational Services Group (Table 2) and the Education and Library Science Group (Table 5) voted 83 % and 87 % respectively in favour of the tentative agreements reached on their behalf.

"Economic conditions have changed since the events of September 11^th," says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel. "While these settlements do not reflect all of our members’ aspirations, particularly the need to restore the purchasing power they lost during the 1990s, the union has been able to achieve some significant improvements, as well as some breakthroughs just for PSAC members."

Turmel says that PSAC members can be proud of their strike action taken this summer which has resulted in significantly better terms and conditions than Treasury Board was initially prepared to offer. "For example, all four agreements will now provide an exclusive new benefit of two additional days off with pay per year. Members may take one day for any reason and one day to volunteer in their community.

"The treatment of our term members is a long-standing concern which the federal government must take seriously. And to deal with these concerns we have negotiated 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. We are committed to doing everything we can to make this issue a priority for reform.

"We have also negotiated 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," adds Turmel. "We intend to see that our members get the maximum benefit from this training."

Members in all four Groups will receive economic increases of 3.2%, 2.8% and 2.5% in each year respectively of the three-year agreements. Other wage and benefit adjustments include:

• an average additional increase of 1.7% as a result of the harmonization of rates of pay for Table 1 members in the Administrative Services (AS), Programme Administration (PM) and Information Services (IS) groups;
• two additional salary increments for members in the Welfare Programmes Group (Table 1);
• a reduction to three pay zones for Operational Services Group (Table 2) members still receiving regional rates of pay, retroactive to the first day of the agreement;
• a signing bonus of up to $1000 for Table 2 members depending on how they are affected by the reduction in regional pay zones;
• new captive time provisions affecting members who travel;
• a special allowance of $2,000 paid to Fisheries officers this year and next which has been made pensionable; and
• an improved Lay Day factor so that Ships’ Crews members no longer have to use vacation leave in order to earn a full year’s pay.

Expiry dates of the new agreements will be June 20, 2003 (Table 1), August 4, 2003 (Table 2), June 21, 2003 (Table 3), and June 30, 2003 (Table 5)

Notes from the PSAC Press Conference November 6^th, 2001

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For information:
Nycole Turmel, PSAC National President, (613) 560-4330
John Gordon, PSAC National Executive Vice-President (613) 560-4310

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