FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 5, 2002

PSAC says concerns raised in

2002 CCRA Employee Survey
requires serious attention

OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada and two of its Components, the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) and Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise (CEUDA) are calling on the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) to pay serious attention to the concerns raised by its workers in the 2002 Employee Survey.

More than 31,000 workers at CCRA responded to the survey that asked for their views on issues in their workplace. It is the second survey of its kind since 1999.

While the 2002 results seem to show an improvement in many areas since the 1999 survey, the PSAC notes that workload, classification, high staff turnover, harassment and discrimination are areas of serious concern.

“CCRA management shouldn’t sit on its laurels,” says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel. “The problematic issues need to be dealt with immediately and appropriately and management needs to fully involve the unions in the process.”

According to the 2002 survey:

· 30 per cent of respondents feel they cannot complete their work during their regular working hours;

· 62 per cent say the quality of their work suffers because they have to do the same or more work, but with fewer resources;

· 38 per cent feel they are not fairly classified compared with others doing similar work in their organization or elsewhere in the Public Service;

· 44 per cent say that staff turnover has been a significant problem in their work unit in the past three years;

· 23 per cent say they’re planning to leave the Public Service in the next five years and of those 46 per cent cite workplace difficulties, such as conflict with management or colleagues and work environment, as one of their reasons for quitting; and

· 17 per cent of respondents say they experienced harassment on the job in the past two years, while 16 per cent say they experienced discrimination on the job in the past two years.

“It’s obvious that our members are highly committed to providing quality services to Canadians. Indeed, despite problems in the workplace, nine out of ten workers say they are proud of the work that they do ,” says Ron Moran, National President of CEUDA.

“It should also be pointed out that the higher satisfaction rate among the workers is directly related to many of the collective agreement provisions that we negotiated in the last round of bargaining” concluded Betty Bannon, National President of UTE.

-30-

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

Betty Bannon, UTE National President, (613) 266-5956

Ron Moran, CEUDA National President (613) 723-8008

46-051202