Union Update
December 2007
Acrobat format
In this issue:
Program and Administrative Services:
negotiations continue and key demands are discussed
Your PSAC Program and Administrative Services (PA) Bargaining Team met Treasury Board for another four days, starting October 30. The two teams met every day and exchanged information in a respectful atmosphere.
During the meetings, the Canada Public Service Agency made a presentation on bilingual positions in the federal public sector. Among other things, the Agency is responsible for monitoring the implementation of Official Languages policies.
The presentation was a response to the PA unit’s demand on language training. Your PSAC-PA Team has submitted a proposed Memorandum of Understanding to the employer with suggested guidelines for the fair implementation of language training. PSAC wants to ensure that the policy is being applied fairly and that there is more equal access to the training.
Service Canada representatives also appeared with a presentation on hours of work. This is the start of what will likely be a long discussion on this issue. Your PSAC-PA Team is taking a strong position against the employer’s demands for concessions in hours of work.
Your PSAC-PA Team also made presentations, one on the demand for transit passes and one on the union demand for improvements to severance pay. At this time, severance pay is capped at 30 years of service. Your Team pointed out that our members’ loyalty to the public they serve does not end at 30 years. Severance pay was created to recognize long service and a result should not be capped at an arbitrary number of years. In fact, one member of your Team has well over 30 years of service. The teams have also discussed maternity and parental leave provisions.
Your Team is continuing to work hard together to push through what appears to be a reluctance on the part of the employer to reach a conclusion on any of the issues at the table.
Next bargaining sessions
Dates originally scheduled for December have been postponed due to in the negotiations on the Essential Services Agreements (ESAs) and the completion of some compensation studies. PSAC has had to resort to filing complaints with the Public Service Labour Relations Board in an attempt to get the information it needs from the departments to negotiate the ESAs.
Your PSAC-PA Team will be back at the table in the new year but actual meeting dates have yet to be confirmed. This information will be posted on the PSAC web site and published in the Union Update.
Frontières/Border Services (FB)
Employer insists on Inferior Working Conditions for Workers
The week of November 5, your FB Bargaining Team met with Treasury Board/CBSA for four days in an effort to bring us closer to a new collective agreement. Over the course of the session, we discussed (among other things) Hours of Work, the Arming Initiative, Alternative Working Arrangements, Vacation Leave provisions and our demand that no employees working in enforcement be required to work alone. At the table, the employer continued to insist on reducing standards for CBSA workers, including proposals that would give management the sole authority to create work schedules, reduce the amount of vacation that can be carried over and provide virtually no notice to employees when work schedules are to be changed. Our Team rejected these proposals and made it clear that the rollbacks being proposed by Treasury Board are not in the interests of CBSA, our members or the Canadian public.
Our Team Demands Fairness
During the session we also reiterated the importance of having contract language that provides full job security in the context of the Arming Initiative, Alternative Working Arrangements and fair work scheduling that allows employees a say in when they work. The employer agreed to none of these.
What we are asking for is simple: that CBSA workers are afforded the same standards that are found in other worksites across this country. If tens of thousands of federal workers have a voice in their hours of work and have their years of service respected, why shouldn't we? If Canada Post workers have full job security, why shouldn't we in the context of the Arming initiative? If Alternative Working Arrangements have worked for years and are in effect now for certain federal employees, why shouldn't we all have access to them?
We work hard. We ensure that Canada's communities are secure. We deserve better.
PSAC Parks Canada Bargaining Unit:
Parks employer caught bargaining in bad faith
The Parks Agency was caught bargaining in bad faith, providing an example of their arrogance and lack of respect toward the bargaining process.
On Tuesday, October 23, near the end of the day, the Employer approached one of your Bargaining Team members and began to talk about setting up private discussions the following week about changing the terms and conditions of employment for some canal workers, a discussion that would take place away from the bargaining table. The Bargaining Team member reported the incident to the rest of the Team in caucus. On Thursday morning, the negotiator raised the issue at the bargaining table with the Employer, stating that this was a clear textbook case of bargaining in bad faith.
However, as it is the mandate of your Bargaining Team to reach a fair and just agreement with the Employer, we intend to continue negotiating in spite of the Employer's complete lack of respect for your right to be represented by your Union, during the bargaining process.
There was some progress at the bargaining table. We agreed on many editorial changes to the collective agreement and discussed and tabled new language required in the collective agreement to reflect the new Québec Parental Insurance Plan.
We returned to the negotiating table the week of November 19 and will be there on January 28. During those sessions we will make presentations on some of our demands, including: Defending Quality Public Services; student Employment; Seasonal Employment; No Contracting Out; Injury on Duty Leave; Joint Learning Programs; and, the National Joint Council.
Education and Library Science:
Employer turns down proposals
Your PSAC Bargaining Team for the EB Group met with the Employer from November 6 to 9, 2007.
The Employer did not respond favourably to our proposals to improve bereavement leave. We are asking for leave of five working days when there is a death in the immediate family, and we are trying to improve the discretionary leave for bereavement-related travel to five days from three. We are also proposing to increase bereavement leave provisions dealing with extended family members and to add co-workers and close friends to the list.
Moreover, we are seeking to have the Employer recognize the special leave requirements for those who have traditional bereavement responsibilities in Aboriginal communities.
We are disappointed to report that the Employer also turned down our proposal to include gender identity and expression, as well as political activity, in the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination, despite a passionate presentation in which we invited Treasury Board to join us in making a powerful statement opposing discrimination of all kinds in the workplace. This demand as well as our bereavement leave proposals remain on the table.
On behalf of the Team, Mike Freeman presented a convincing argument on the need to increase class preparation time for teachers employed by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, and to allocate in the school year specific non-contact days so that teachers have adequate time to deal with the increasing number of administrative tasks they are asked to perform.
Finally, we succeeded in persuading the Employer to withdraw its demand to remove ‘grand jury’ from the list of court proceedings for which members are granted leave. The rationale for the Employer’s proposal was that grand juries exist in the United States, not Canada. We responded that we have a number of members who work at the Canadian Embassy in Washington as well as at several consular offices throughout the U. S.
Carryover of annual leave from one year to the next and notice conditions for personal leave were also discussed.
Technical Services: Your team listens to the memberses
Your TC Bargaining Team was in Ottawa from November 2nd to the 9th. During this session the Team continued to gather information from the members in support of their proposals.
Your Team also met with the other Bargaining Teams to brief each other on the status of their negotiations, to discuss the recent CRA tentative settlement, and the postponement of the December bargaining sessions and to clarify who would be the lead tables for our coordinated list of demands.
Starting Tuesday November 6 to Friday November 9, the Team had meetings with the Employer where we discussed proposals including the following items: compensatory leave, NJC agreements, sexual harassment, call back, standby, reporting pay, travel status leave, leave general, transfer of leave credits, injury on duty leave, and a new pre-retirement transition leave.
The Employer’s responses to our proposals tabled this week included comments such as ‘the Employer wishes to maintain the current language’ and ‘operational managers/departments do not agree due to the huge dollar impact’. In light of this, members may want to contact their respective operational managers to discuss the benefits of our proposals.
Dates for further negotiations are being scheduled in the New Year for January and February.
For the automatic email update, members are encouraged to register on the PSAC National Website: http://www.psac-afpc.org/news/listserve/tb-e.shtml
Canada Post pay equity case
The Federal Court heard the Canada Post pay equity case on November 21 and 22, 2007. Further dates will be scheduled for early 2008 to complete the Canada Post judicial review application and to hear the PSAC's judicial review application. The 2008 dates will be published in the Union Update in the near future.
Winners of the PSAC Scholarship
Every year the PSAC offers 15 scholarships valued at $30,000 to the children and dependants of PSAC members. To be eligible, the participants must write an essay on a given topic,. This year, the topic of the essay was:
You work in a small non-unionized workplace of 100 employees. You would like to help unionize it. How would you go about it? Be sure to include how you would build support for this initiative among your co-workers.
The winners of the sholarships are:
GARRET ALEXANDER WARD – PSAC National scholarship
(parent: Diane Ward | NH&WU | Prairies)
FÉLIX ANTOINE BOUCHER – PSAC National scholarship
(parents: Marie Kroft & Pierre Boucher | UTE | Québec)
STEPHEN KYLE BÉLANGER – PSAC National scholarship
(parent: Marc Bélanger | UCTE | Ontario)
RÉBEKA FRAZER-CHIASSON – PSAC National scholarship
(parent: Holly Frazer | USGE | Atlantic)
KRISTEN ALICIA SCHMIDT – PSAC National scholarship
(parent: Jaqueline Schmidt | USGE | Prairies)
NICHOLAS D’AOUST – PSAC National scholarship
(parent: Ginette Brassard | AGR | National Capital Region)
DAVID MATTHEW PUKIN - J.R. (Joe) Power – PSAC National scholarship
(parent: Harvey Pukin | UEW | Prairies)
DANIK OUELLETTE – PSAC National Scholarship
(parents: Rock Ouellette | CEUDA | Atlantic)
DANIELLE NICOLLE FLYNN – PSAC Regional scholarship: ATLANTIC
(parent: Helen Flynn | UEW | Atlantic)
STÉPHANIE JOBIN – PSAC Regional scholarship: QUÉBEC
(parent: Suzanne Nantel | CEIU | Québec)
MATHIEU OUDIN – PSAC Regional scholarship: NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
(parent: Anne Parsons | UCTE | National Capital Region)
EMMA JEAN STURM – PSAC Regional scholarship: ONTARIO
(parent: Donna Coleman | CEIU | Ontario)
KRISTEN LORELLE TULLY – PSAC Regional scholarship: PRAIRIES
(member | UVAE | Prairies)
BRUCE DANIEL PICKETTS – PSAC Regional scholarship: BRITISH COLUMBIA
(parent: Norman Picketts | UTE | British Columbia)
JUSTINE SARAH MACKELLAR – PSAC Regional scholarship: NORTH
(member | YEU | North)
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