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OTTAWA - Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) employed by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) have ratified a tentative agreement reached at the end of January.

"Today, we are signing our second agreement with the Agency, as a result of negotiations which began in November 2000," said PSAC National President Nycole Turmel. "Now that it signed, we can put into action a joint union management committee on term employment that the Agency has agreed to fund to the tune of $300,000. The joint committee will examine the specific working conditions affecting CCRA’s term employees, who make up almost one-third of our members."

"This round of negotiations has produced some breakthrough benefits for our members," adds Betty Bannon, national president of the PSAC’s Union of Taxation Employees (UTE). "The new agreement allows term employees to receive pay increments after accumulating 52 non-continuous weeks of service and provides an increase in family-related paid leave from five to six days a year - both firsts in public service agreements. In addition, the combination of economic increases and harmonization of pay rates we have negotiated will result in the maximum rate of pay for a CR-4 increasing by 10% over the life of the agreement, while the maximum rate for a PM-2 will go up by 11%."

"Unfortunately, in spite of the efforts of our bargaining team, CCRA refused to address a number of bargaining demands specific to Customs Officers in this round of negotiations, says Serge Charette, national president of the PSAC’s Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise (CEUDA). Issues such as border staffing standards, premium pay to reflect new Customs Officer responsibilities and training facilities to help maintain physical standards are very important and will be back on the table next year.

Other features of the tentative agreement include:

• Job security provisions are strengthened with the CCRA committing to assist surplus employees in finding placement elsewhere in the broader federal public service.
• Rates of pay are being harmonized for a majority of pay groups and employees.
• Economic increases of 3.2% effective November 1, 2000; 2.8% effective November 1, 2001 and 2.5% effective November 1, 2002. The harmonization of rates is retroactive to November 1, 2001 before the second economic increase is applied.
• Regional pay zones covering some CCRA employees are being reduced from seven to 2, retroactive to November 1, 2000, before the first economic increase is applied.
• Part-time employees will now earn increments after 52 cumulative weeks of work, rather than having to work 1,950 hours at once, and will keep that pay rate on any rehire.
• Shift premiums will go up to $1.75 from $1.60 effective March 22, 2002 and up to $2.00 on November 1, 2002.

The PSAC represents approximately 33,000 employees in the Program Delivery and Administrative Services Group at CCRA. The new agreement expires on October 31, 2003.

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For information:

16-220302