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2019 High School Scholarship

At the UNE, we believe that no one should be stripped of the chance to reach their full potential because of the increasingly unaffordable cost of post-secondary education. That is why our members are proud to offer several scholarships to promising students.

The High School Scholarship program awards eleven scholarships in the amount of $1,000 – one from each region – to students in their last year of high school who are about to pursue post-secondary education.

These scholarships are designed to highlight union principles, as well as promote our union and the labour movement in a positive way. The scholarships aim to create awareness of our union within high schools and provide financial assistance to worthy students. This initiative will encourage youth to become more involved in union and social justice activities.

Please ensure that you follow the criteria and complete the application form carefully. The deadline for the High School Scholarships is March 31, 2019.

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Passport Program at EDSC/IRCC

Information distributed to all Passport Canada locals

There is a transformation of the Passport program within ESDC/IRCC; a passport client demand reduction anticipated to start in the fall of 2018 as a result of the introduction of the 10 Year passport (back in 2013). It is anticipated that there will be no job loss among indeterminate members and few, if any, term employees will be impacted.

The Citizen Services Branch of ESDC, in collaboration with the Regions, is reviewing the matter, site by site HR projections included in review. The employer will be attempting to identify employment opportunities for impacted indeterminate staff prior to volume shifts, to maximize talent retention, leveraging opportunities across business lines.

According to the employer, the expected work transformation differs by EDSC region (passport Program Operations) with the following employer observations:

  • Work Force Adjustment (WFA Risk) is considered minimal for all sites
  • Workforce Management Committee informed of Passport HR Strategy
  • Transformation Working Group risk managed potential passport volume reductions since 2016, according to the employer
  • Integration of employees is underway within the Service Canada Centers, Passport Delivery Operations Centre/and other connected business lines

According to ESDC/IRCC, next steps will be to:

  • Monitor Workforce Management plan
  • Continue staffing levels until volume dip confirmed by IRCC – expected September of 2018
  • Begin alignment of staff to volume correction – approximately 20%, while maintaining staff compliment for winter peak – expected Fall of 2018
  • Ensure sustained staffing levels for unpredictable volume spike during a new winter peak
  • Financial smoothing for the transition period up to 6 months post “dip”up to a 6 month period between October 2018 and end of fiscal year
  • Review and update HR risk scenarios region by region, and site by site on a monthly basis, post “dip”

UNE continues to represent employees of the Passport Program in its current state and intends to represent any impacted employees transferred to other aspects of ESDC/IRCC, as this matter is a constitutional right afforded with the PSAC Constitution.

While this change creates uncertainty, Passport Program members can be confident that UNE is working hard on their behalf to effectively represent them and their interests during this period of transformation.

Respectfully, and in Solidarity,

Kevin A. King

National President

Union of National Employees, PSAC

 

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Labour Day Activities 2018

Labour Day will be on September 3, a time to celebrate workers, unions and Labour organizations in Canada.

This year’s theme is Pharmacare: A Plan for Everyone, and it is the opportunity to discuss the importance and the urgency of implementing a national pharmacare program with union members and the public.

Labour Councils are organizing events across the country and UNE members are invited to attend them.

Happy Labour Day!

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The Capital Pride Parade: PSAC members marching!

The Ottawa Capital Pride Parade is August 26, and PSAC, in partnership with CAPE and PIPSC, will be participating in the parade. We need you to come and march with us! We will have a truck that needs to be decorated and we need your help. If you’re interested in walking with us, can help us decorate, or require more information, please contact NCRpride_fierteRCN@psac-afpc.com.

Volunteers will meet at 233 Gilmour at 10am to prepare. PIPSC will provide a small breakfast.

If you are just marching with us, based on last year’s experience, we should be located on Bank Street between Argyle and McLeod. The parade starts at 1:30pm so join us at 1pm. Look for PSAC and PIPSC flags to find us!

Event Details: August 26, 2018, 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, Ottawa, ON

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Update on SSO Negotiations

The bargaining team met in Ottawa from June 12 to 14, 2018, to try to reach a collective agreement for both office and field units.

An important improvement for our members in both units was reached after weeks of discussion with the employer: the conversion of term positions to indeterminate ones after four years of employment at SSO. The new policy will come into effect as of October 1, 2018 and cannot be altered unless both parties agree to modify it.

The PSAC bargaining team has been fighting hard to negotiate a fair collective agreement and put forward proposals on wage-related issues. The employer accepted the same wage increase that the core public sector gets but refused any other offer.

Since there are still important wages issues both parties could not agree, the next step will be to file for arbitration. Stay tuned.

Our bargaining team:

Shalane Spencer

Mary Ann Walker

Linda Woods

Shelly Daudlin

Alice Vallee

Claude-Andre Leduc

Anna Goldfeld

 

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Legislative Update: Bill C-262, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act

Daniel Toutant, MP Romeo Saganash and Ruby Langan

 

Bill C-262, An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is a fundamental piece of legislation. Bill C-262 ensures that the laws of Canada respect the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This bill addresses an essential issue, Indigenous human rights. The sponsor of the bill, MP Romeo Saganash, worked with the United Nations for 23 years, negotiating the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:

“Bill C-262 […] also allow[s] us to begin to redress the past wrongs, the past injustices that were inflicted on indigenous people. This is the main objective of Bill C-262, to recognize that on one hand they are human rights but on the other hand that we begin to redress the past injustices that were inflicted on the first peoples of this country.”

“The long journey of reconciliation involves recognizing fundamental Indigenous human rights and Bill C-262 shows us why we need to implement these international standards” explains National Equity Representative for Aboriginal Peoples Ruby Langan.

Ruby has been promoting this bill across the country and coordinated three rallies in late 2017, two of which were in Ottawa as well as one in Vancouver. She had the opportunity to attend the debate in the House of Commons on December 5, 2017 and listened to Romeo Saganash’s speech on this important issue. “Being invited by the Office of MP Romeo Saganash to attend the debate on this bill was an honour and a moment of pride for all the work aboriginal activists and allies put into the awareness of this fundamental issue”.

“Bill C-262 is about human rights. Bill C-262 is about justice. Bill C-262 is about reconciliation”, explains MP Saganash. The government supports the bill. Committed to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the Prime Minister established a working group of Ministers to study laws regarding Indigenous peoples. The bill has gone through three readings in the House of Commons and is scheduled for the Senate. Bill C-262 is a long-term commitment to improve Canada’s Indigenous human rights legislation.

Ruby has demonstrated her tireless commitment to not just indigenous peoples, but her hope to educate union leadership, and the general public as well. Her accomplishments are to be well recognized by all of us at UNE.

 

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National Indigenous Peoples Day

This should be a national holiday. The whole country should use June 21 to celebrate and honour the original peoples of this land. There is much to learn, whether historical or current events, and much to do. For many Canadians, the history of Indigenous peoples was not taught in school. I offer some suggestions.

Learn the history

  • Indigenous peoples as allies, treaty making
  • Indigenous peoples as wards of the state, Indian Act, apartheid, genocide, residential school barbarity, Metis scrip, Inuit relocation

Monitor current events

  • Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Inquiry
  • United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
  • Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP)
  • 60’s Scoop
  • Pipelines and resources, duty to consult
  • Indigenous chapter in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Activate

There is so much we need to accomplish. Learn. Feel. Heal. Eat bannock. Attend a pow wow. Read a book by an Indigenous author. Change laws and attitudes. Open eyes. Human rights equality in Canada depends on what we are willing to do.

All my relations,

Ruby Langan

UNE National Equity Representative for Aboriginal Peoples

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New financial losses covered by claims process: what you need to know

Employees who earned salary in 2016, but were not paid a portion of this salary until 2017, may have incurred financial losses due to:

  • Paying a higher rate of income tax
  • Reduced government benefits and credits

If you paid a higher rate of income tax due to receiving a portion of your 2016 salary in 2017, you can now submit a claim for the difference between what you paid, and what you should have paid had your salary been paid to you on time. Please make sure you have your correct 2017 notice of assessment before submitting the claim.

Receiving a portion of your 2016 salary in 2017 may have affected your eligibility for certain government benefits and credits. Starting in July 2018, employees will be able to submit claims related to their 2018 government benefits and credits, such as the Canada child benefit, GST/HST rebates, and daycare subsidies.

 

More information

Before preparing your claim, PSAC strongly urges members to review the following information from Treasury Board:

Departments and agencies have assigned claims officers to help you with this process. You can find the contact information for your department’s claims officer here.

 

Other eligible expenses

Don’t forget, you can still claim for out-of-pocket expenses, tax services (up to $200), and an advance on missing benefits.

If you have suffered a financial loss or incurred expenses due to Phoenix, but you do not find your particular situation described in the information provided at the above links, PSAC encourages you to still submit a claim. According to Treasury Board: “If you have incurred a permanent financial loss because of Phoenix, fill out a claim and add as much information as you can. Our goal is to correct each situation and we review each claim on a case-by-case basis.”

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Mr. Brison, Passport Canada is NOT Amazon.

Dear Mr. Brison,

Recently you were a speaker at the 2017 Inaugural FWD50 Conference, to discuss digitization amongst all levels of government, the private sector, NGOs and academia. You spoke about making a difference and having an impact that provides “better” services to Canadians.

Notably, you stated that “Canadians don’t understand why they can’t receive the same level of service from their government when they renew a passport that they receive from Amazon when they buy something.”

The comparison of Amazon an online shopping website, to the Canadian Passport is concerning for multiple reasons.

First, Amazon currently has numerous allegations of unscrupulous working conditions and wages. It has been reported that employees are subjected to impossible targets, timed toilet breaks, and unsafe and filthy workplaces.

Secondly, Canadians may value convenience, but it is evident that they also value their security. They value workers’ legislated rights and they value our country’s excellent relations and reputation within the international community. They value having a universally accepted travel and identification document considered to be one of the most secure and most respected in the world.

Seeking accessibility of world-class government digital services may be the desired future. Before that can be done, the government must ensure that security is at the forefront. In terms of the Passport Program, it is necessary to explore the outstanding issues which have been under-reported since the Passport Services were transferred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Service Canada in 2013.

Along the same lines of digital services, one of the arguments provided for dissolving Passport Canada was to modernize the issuance platform and replace the existing processing system which would improve the passport application process for Canadians. The immigration Global Case Management System (GCMS) was intended to be the basis for significant improvements to e-services for Canadians.

From 2013 to 2016, a great deal of time and tremendous resources were spent unsuccessfully trying to accomplish this GCMS goal. The GCMS system could not handle the volume and speed necessary to process the 5.1 million passports being produced annually, a quantity that has been steadily increasing. The program failed to take security precautions into consideration during live system implementation and as a result was suspended and audited.

Furthermore, in April 2017, the departments enabled the downgrading from Secret security clearances to the basic reliability for all employees across Canada. This was done without advising the public and without consultation with the Union of National Employees. This appears to contradict government security policies and agreements and an Auditor General report from 2005.

Passport Program employees take pride in creating the most valuable Canadian identification that serves as the proof of holder’s identity and nationality status outside Canada. Presumably, Canadians want to ensure their personal information is safeguarded and that issuance of Passports is not placed in the hands of adversary interests.

I ask for your attention to the issues raised in my letter. I also ask for a public apology and recognition of the tremendous work the Passport Program employees do in serving the Canadian Public each and every day.

Respectfully yours,

Kevin King
National President
Union of National Employees