As the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination begins to gain momentum, PSAC would like to remind all federal employees that they can request paid 698 leave to attend their vaccination appointment.
With the 698 leave, employees have access to up to a half-day of paid leave to attend a medical or dental appointment. This includes an appointment for vaccination, and time to travel to and from the vaccination site.
The paid leave is possible under a Treasury Board policy covering medical and dental appointments, but PSAC has been in discussions with Treasury Board to ensure that employees who are getting a vaccine that require a booster are also entitled to paid leave for the second vaccination.
However, since 698 leave is only available to employees of the federal government, we ask that provincial and territorial governments follow the federal Treasury Board example and not penalize employees by docking their pay when they protect themselves and their community by getting the COVID-19 vaccine. All workers, regardless of their jurisdiction, should be able to get vaccinated without worrying about their paycheques.
If you have any questions about your rights on the 698 leave, reach out to your local shop steward, your Component, or the PSAC regional office for help and support.
PSAC welcomes the measures in the 2021 budget that respond to the needs of Canadians hardest hit by the pandemic.
Our union is also very pleased to see the historic investment in universal child care, a commitment to finally establishing a federal $15 minimum wage, and resources to battle systemic racism in the federal public service and beyond.
“This historic investment in universal child care is a lifeline for parents who are struggling to afford rising child care fees,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC national president. “This is a major victory for our union and child care advocates who have been fighting for affordable, accessible and universal child care for decades.”
The program is key to ensuring parents, especially women who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, re-join the workforce and help drive Canada’s economic recovery.
The government’s increased pandemic support, including the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program, recognizes PSAC members’ success in delivering these critical services to Canadians and underscores the important role of a strong public service.
“Now more than ever, Canadians need to be reassured that they’ll still be able to pay their bills even if they can’t work because of COVID-19,” said Aylward. “Public service workers stepped up when Canadians needed them most, and they’ll continue to deliver the financial aid workers depend on.”
It remains disappointing that the government failed to act on its commitment to create a national, universal pharmacare program. Canadians need pharmacare now more than ever as workers continue to lose access to prescription drug coverage because of pandemic job losses.
The government also continues to fund important community infrastructure by putting the profits of private companies before the needs of Canadians through the Canada Infrastructure Bank and increased Social Financing.
“Privatization of public assets and services costs more, provides poorer service and increases safety and security risks, all while leaving the government – and Canadian taxpayers – on the hook to foot the larger bill,” said Aylward.
PSAC is pressing governments to prioritize vaccinations for critical front-line workers across Canada to limit the spread of COVID-19.
PSAC represents thousands of front-line workers doing critical work at Canada’s borders, in federal penitentiaries, day shelters and group homes, community parole officers, firefighters, Coast Guard staff and employees on military bases, meat-packing plant workers, food inspectors and many more.
Their close contact with the public and other employees while performing their work puts them at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and contributing to outbreaks in their communities. That’s why it’s crucial that all provinces and territories provide access to vaccinations for front-line essential workers as soon as possible, as per Stage 2 of the Government of Canada’s vaccine schedule.
“The federal government has an obligation to safeguard the health and safety of all its employees during the pandemic,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC national president. “Federal ministers must step in and mandate provinces and territories to accelerate vaccinations for front-line essential workers as soon as possible, as recommended in the federal government’s own vaccination schedule.”
PSAC and components, including the Customs and Immigration Union and the Union of Safety and Justice Employees, have been lobbying both the federal and provincial governments, including Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, to prioritize vaccinations for our members.
“Canada Border Services Agency personnel have continued to perform critical work despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jean-Pierre Fortin, CIU national president, representing more than 11,000 CBSA officers and workers across the country. “With a third wave now well underway and the growing threat of COVID variants, it’s imperative for frontline Border Services officers to be prioritized for vaccinations equally across the country, alongside other first responders and law enforcement personnel.”
Some provinces have prioritized vaccinations for front-line workers early on, while others still refuse to consider many front-line workers essential under their vaccination plans, creating a patchwork system that puts workers and the Canadians they serve at risk. Two workers, doing the same job and facing the same risk of exposure to COVID-19, could be vaccinated months apart under the current provincial arrangement.
“By not quickly moving to vaccinate all front-line staff who work day in and day out with federal offenders, we put thousands of Canadians and employees at continued high risk of COVID-19 outbreaks,” said Stan Stapleton, national president of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees representing all federal employees working in rehabilitative, parole, maintenance, food service and related support roles in federal minimum, medium and maximum security penitentiaries, as well as Community Correctional Centres and parole offices across Canada.
PSAC will continue to pressure the federal government to work collaboratively with provincial public health authorities and ensure all front-line workers are equally prioritized as part of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
PSAC is launching a new round of negotiations with Treasury Board to update and strengthen the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP). The much-delayed talks are starting after PSAC, other federal public service unions, and the National Association of Federal Retirees threatened legal action earlier this year to compel the government to come to the table.
The health care plan, which covers most federal public service workers and retirees, has not been meaningfully updated since 2006 and needs significant updates to reflect recent medical advances, increases in the cost of health services, and emerging technologies. Supported by the results of a membership survey on the health care plan and other extensive research, PSAC is ready to advocate for a comprehensive set of proposals to improve the health care plan, including:
greater coverage for vision care (including laser eye surgery)
increased coverage for all paramedical services (such as physiotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic care)
improved coverage for psychological services (including higher claimable maximum and access to a wider range of practitioners)
removal of prescription requirements for paramedical benefits claims
The Public Service Health Care Plan provides coverage for a wide variety of health-related products and services for a majority of federal public service workers. PSAC negotiates the health care plan directly with Treasury Board, together with other bargaining agents of the National Joint Council and the National Association of Federal Retirees, representing retired members. This is done outside of the regular bargaining process for collective agreements.
The Indigenous peoples in Canada have celebrated March 31st to honour the strength and endurance of our languages. There are thousands of Indigenous Language Champions creating and delivering Indigenous languages programs every day.
I celebrate the work of our Indigenous Language Champions who are revitalizing and are seeking ways to sustain the survival of our languages. I acknowledge the difficult burden they are carrying to reverse more than a century of attempts to erase our languages and identity, mostly through residential schools.
Our communities now have opportunities to live and learn our Mother tongues through Language Nests, Immersion Programs, Language and Cultural Camps, and to offer Master-Apprentice Programs as well as degree programs for our Teachers and those who want to become fluent speakers and Language Teachers. Across the country we have asserted greater determination to use our languages, our identities, and to seek equitable recognition and support to that which is provided to the official languages in this country.
At this time I wish to acknowledge the importance of language and culture for the well-being and resilience of Indigenous communities around the world. It’s also a day to lift up our hands to the many language champions working to address the language crisis facing Indigenous peoples.
Lenora Maracle UNE National Equity Representative for Aboriginal Peoples
The Parks Canada Agency has announced the payment schedule for the implementation of monetary provisions in the recently signed collective agreement.
Signature
Economic increase and adjustments paycheque date
Retro paycheque
$500 lump sum paycheque
Parks Canada Workers
January 14, 2021
April 14, 2021
May 12, 2021
May 26, 2021
This schedule is tentative, and Parks Canada may still make changes. Note that Phoenix damages payments were made on March 3.
Please keep your contact information up to date via the member portal to continue receiving information about the implementation of collective agreements and the Phoenix settlement.
Help us prepare for the next round of bargaining
PSAC is getting ready to negotiate your next collective agreement with Parks Canada. This next round of talks will be all about the future of work in the federal public service and you can help decide what your union bargaining team brings to the table by completing our member survey.
Please take 15 minutes to fill out the Parks Canada survey to make sure we address your workplace concerns at the table. Your input is essential. We need to hear directly from you about what has changed over the last year. And we need to know more about you so that we can make the case for a contract that equitably addresses our members’ diverse needs. The survey will be open until April 9, 2021.
PSAC has finally had the ability to assign this matter to a job content and classification analyst and had its most recent meeting regarding the Passport Officer job description on March 9, 2021.
PSAC had invited Passport Program employees, selected within UNE, to participate:
Rose Touhey, in-person Passport Officer (NCR)
Kate Hart, in-person Passport Officer (AB)
Nathalie Lynda, mail-in Passport Officer (QC)
Jonathan McMullen, in-person Passport Officer (QC)
Fred Kelih, in-person Passport Officer (BC)
Vanny Del Bianco, in-person Passport Officer (BC)
PSAC is planning on having additional meetings with Passport members selected by UNE between now and end of April 2021.
PSAC also had the chance to discuss with the Employer representative in Classification on Feb 12, 2021 , who confirmed that they are currently working on a workplace review.
If their review is in PSAC’s favour, the Passport Officer position’s classification may be adjusted through that process by the Employer.
If their review is not in PSAC’s favour, PSAC will establish its position regarding the representation of this matter.
PSAC is not putting the process on any hold while the Employer is working on their review as the classification section will be working with the members – as suggested and assigned by UNE – to prepare for a potential representation and gather as much information as possible to determine defensible arguments to support an upward classification.
The project is expected to conclude around the end of April 2021, and by then, PSAC will be able to analyse its ability to represent this matter.
We await a fulsome analysis from PSAC, and hope for positive news and will communicate further on this classification project.
March 21st has been earmarked as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and this year’s theme is “Youth standing up against racism”.
On this day, in 1960, police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire killing 69, and wounding 180 people during a peaceful demonstration against apartheid laws. This incident, in 1966, prompted the United Nations General Assembly to proclaim March 21st as the Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
More then 50 years ago, The Sharpeville massacre set the world’s spotlight on the very visible and atrocious, treatment of South African blacks not unlike the recent killing of George Floyd nearly one year ago in the United States at the hands of a police officer that resonated on a worldwide scale.
Despite these very blatant public displays of cruelty, resulting in death, of black people, governments around the world continue to allow racism to feed and grow throughout its institutions, systems and societies.
Decades have passed since Sharpeville and yet the world continues to log many incidences of racism and discrimination. For some, March 21st, simply serves as a one-day show of solidarity or allyship, and once the “smoke clears”, the status quo remains unchanged and their realities go unaffected.
Canada has shown significant progress however, much work remains to be done to create a society that is truly equal and inclusive for all. The Clerk of the Privy Council reported, “… it is not sufficient to simply equip ourselves with knowledge and tools. We must take action in ways we know will be meaningful in addressing all barriers and disadvantages. Being a leader means taking an active role in ending all forms of discrimination and oppression, consciously challenging our own biases, and creating an environment in which our employees feel empowered and safe to speak up when they witness barriers to equity and inclusion. Inaction is not an option. We must encourage and support the voices that have long been marginalized in our organizations. We must create opportunities where they have long been absent. We must take direct, practical actions to invoke change. This is a true test of leadership, and one we must meet head on. Now”. (Clerk to the Privy Council, Call to action on anti-racism, equity, and inclusion in the Federal Public Service).
In Canada, we showcase the richness of the multi-cultural mosaic and all that entails, and most entertain the idea that Canada is racist free; with every member of its citizenry enjoying equality and inclusivity. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, statistics have shown a spike of racism towards marginalized populations. Prior to this, statistics bear witness to the underbelly of the richness of our differences and confirms that racism and discrimination is still an everyday reality for Blacks, Indigenous and other marginalized/racialized groups.
Also, let us use this platform, this internationally recognized day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to acknowledge the many achievements of those amongst us who stand marginalized, their continued struggle to achieve equality in the workplace, to combat conscious and unconscious biases within the walls of institutions and systems fraught with racist and discriminatory practices.
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination provides an opportunity to renew one’s commitment to the responsibilities, both individually and collectively, for promoting and protecting the goal of the elimination of all forms of discrimination and racial oppression. This day can serve as a springboard and as activists, we must make a conscious effort to confront oppression and racial discrimination in all forms and fight for equity in our workplaces, union and our communities.
Hayley Millington UNE National Equity Representative for Racially Visible People
To celebrate the International Francophonie Day taking place on March 20, 2021, the Committee members of the Francophone Committee of the Union of National Employees (UNE), part of PSAC, wish to underscore the exceptional contribution of the allies of its component regarding the respect of the official languages.
To safeguard your rights, we recommend that you take action in your workplaces.
For more information on the activities taking place in your region, click here: https://rvf.ca/en
