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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 April 18, 2002

OTTAWA - Fishery officers across Canada will turn down any work that’s not in their job description to pressure Fisheries and Oceans Canada to immediately resolve outstanding issues of undercompensation and under-classification.

Many Fishery officers, who perform enforcement duties with sidearms and can sometimes be in dangerous, confrontational situations, feel they are undercompensated in comparison to other employees who perform similar duties under similar conditions.

"The last collective agreement with Treasury Board did provide for a lump sum to Fishery officers conducting these duties," says William Pynn, the national president of the Environment Component, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union representing the Fishery officers.

"But that’s just a stop-gap measure that doesn’t really solve the root of the problem. The government’s Universal Classification Standard (UCS) was supposed to resolve this issue, but, at this point, we don’t even know what the status is of that plan."

Fishery officers in the General Technical (GT) classification achieved high scores in the government’s UCS exercise compared to others in GT positions in the federal public service. This should have meant higher compensation for Fishery officers.

"The department’s deputy minister, Wayne Wouters, and Assistant Deputy Minister Pat Chamut acknowledged that under-classification and undercompensation among Fishery officers were a problem," Pynn says. "They also made a commitment that if the UCS does not come through, they would find an alternative solution to the problem. Now they’re saying there’s nothing they can do until Treasury Board makes an announcement about UCS. Well, we’re at a point where enough is enough."

Fishery officers are sometimes asked by management to perform voluntary activities, such as firearms instruction, Force Continuum instruction, Code of Conduct investigations and distribution of licences. These are not part of their job descriptions and they don’t receive compensation for doing them. Until the issues are resolved, they will refuse to perform these activities.

The Environment Component, PSAC, represents approximately 550 Fishery officers across Canada.

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For information:
William Pynn, National President, Environment Component, PSAC (613) 736-5533, ext. 228

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