Justin Trudeau said he’d fix public services and repair the relationship with the workers who deliver them. Now is the time for action.
Visit http://psacunion.ca/makegoodonyourword to listen to the radio ad and download a shareable meme for your social media pages.
A long-awaited decision was handed down by the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board (PSLREB) on July 4, 2016. It upheld the right to salary protection for members who transferred to the Department of Canadian Heritage from the National Capital Commission (NCC) in September 2013.
We now have confirmation that the employer has filed a judicial review of the decision before federal court. This is not an appeal, but rather the employer must prove that the PSLREB decision was unreasonable.
The PSAC will be fighting the judicial review and has retained the same legal counsel used to present the grievance. This win was especially important for defending the larger principle of salary protection for employees forced to change employer as a result of government restructuring.
In the meantime, the decision of the adjudicator stands, despite the review application. The PSAC will be working with UNE to ensure that affected members get answers to any questions they may have about the decision, the judicial review application and the implementation of salary protection.
The policy grievance, filed by the PSAC on December 12, 2013, involved 44 members who were transferred by government order and then told they would be paid under the Treasury Board’s classification system, meaning that they would see their salaries reduced by up to $12,000 per year.
The PSLREB decision gave affected employees entitlement to full salary protection under the PSAC and Treasury Board collective agreements effective from the date of transfer.
Unfortunately, the arbitration hearing scheduled for August 29 to hear the outstanding contract issues for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation workers at Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa will have to be rescheduled as the arbitrator was called away at the last minute.
The hearing has been rescheduled for Sept. 13, 2016.
On August 28, the arbitrator advised he was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances. He apologized to PSAC, acknowledging the issues are very important and members have already waited a long time for this hearing.
At the end of May, the union and the employer agreed to binding arbitration to resolve contract issues still in dispute after OLG locked out our members.
Our Parks negotiating team met with the employer’s team on June 28 and 29, 2016.
We opened our discussions by expressing our dismay and anger toward the agency regarding the ongoing pay issues. We concluded our discussion by advising the agency that pay day should be not be a stressful event. Meanwhile, PSAC, along with other federal government unions representing thousands of federal government employees filed a Notice of Application with the Federal Court directing the Respondent to implement a pay administration system that meets its obligations under the FAA and the Directive on Terms and Conditions of Employment.
The agency tabled a revised short term disability proposal to replace our current sick leave provisions. Similar to the proposals tabled with other groups recently, the agency’s proposal would remove sick leave provisions from the current collective agreement and short term disability would be administered as an agency policy. Our negotiating team remains committed to resisting this concession and rejected the agency’s proposal.
Negotiations are set to resume on October 24-27 and November 14-17, 2016.
Our negotiating team thanks you for your ongoing patience and support.
Thank you to all who participated!
Below are photos sent to us by local from coast to coast to coast.
You can still send in your photos and we’ll add them to our flickr feed.
Email Greg McNamara, Communications & Research Officer at greg.mcnamara@une-sen.org.
By now, you have heard that PSAC and other federal public service unions are calling on all members to help send a message to the Liberals by participating in a national action day on June 8th.
So what does your local have planned?
Visit our website here and leave a comment – we want to know. Tell us what you have planned for your local and we will share it on social media. If you have a page set up, let us know and we will post links. We also hope you will send us photos of members in action!
If you haven’t already, click here to download a customizable PDF that you can use as a poster.
The members of PSAC Local 70395 recently voted in favour of the agreement negotiated with the Canadian Museum of Nature. The Local had been in negotiations for the last 2 years.
Highlights of the four-year contract, which expires June 14, 2018, include:
Just as importantly, the Local was able to achieve its bargaining mandate of no concessions in the collective agreement / bargaining process.
“Reaching an agreement was a long process and the negotiation team worked hard to protect and improve our collective agreement,” said Local President Roger Bull. “We offer them sincere thanks for their efforts on behalf of all members.”
Local 70395 represents approximately 100 workers employed by the Canadian Museum of Nature in Gatineau and Ottawa. They work in the areas of administration, advancement, collections, experience and education, facilities, finance, human resources, IT, marketing and media relations protection services, research and visitor services.
Since December 16, 2015, PSAC members employed by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (the OLG) have demonstrated tremendous and overwhelming solidarity in the face of a brutal five-month lock out imposed by the OLG.
Today, following the successful lobbying efforts of our members, including their direct conversations with the Premier of Ontario, the union and the employer agreed to a process of binding arbitration to resolve all outstanding issues between parties.
PSAC members at the OLG will return to work starting Thursday, June 2, 2016.
We congratulate our members for the tremendous courage and determination they brought to the picket line and the bargaining table.
The president of the Treasury Board, Minister Scott Brison today informed PSAC that the Liberals will be repealing the Harper government’s Bill C4, division 17 that restricted our members’ rights to collective bargaining.
“We recognize this as an attempt to correct some of the harm done by the Conservatives. We are looking forward to further discussions to ensure that this round of bargaining will be conducted in a fair manner,” said Robyn Benson, PSAC National President.
“PSAC has asserted that Bill C4 is an attack on our members’ fundamental charter rights and not consistent with a free and democratic society.”
“Our members worked tirelessly to lobby members of parliament about the injustices of this Bill. I want to thank them for their continued vigilance,” concluded Benson.
The settlement will apply to thousands of eligible current and former Interviewers and Senior Interviewers who worked at Statistics Canada between March 8, 1985 and November 5, 1987 and for SSO between November 6, 1987 and November 30, 2013.
“This a huge victory for thousands of our members,” said Robyn Benson, PSAC National President. “PSAC has fought to reach a pay equity settlement with Statistical Survey Operations for years.”
“This is a long time coming. Our members have finally achieved pay equity. ”
“We achieved this victory because our members fought hard with us for many years and never gave up.”
“This struggle builds on the pay equity movement that continues today. We will continue urging the Liberal government to make proactive pay equity legislation a reality without further delay.”
“I’m very happy that PSAC has won this extremely long struggle. This will put between $40-$45 million in the pockets of our members, whose work has been undervalued and who have a long history of precarious employment. The settlement means a lot to them,” added Doug Marshall, National President, Union of National Employees.
Now that the settlement has been signed, PSAC and SSO representatives will work out the details as to the calculation and disbursement of the monies owed. SSO estimates the payments will average between $1500 and $2000 per worker.
As this settlement will apply to several thousand individuals and spans a period of over 30 years, the SSO will make best efforts to commence making payments to eligible employees early in 2017.
In 2002, PSAC filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission on behalf of members employed with seven separate employers, including SSO.
After over a decade of legal wrangling, the SSO case was referred to the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board for a hearing in 2014 which eventually led to further discussions between PSAC and SSO, finally resulting in this settlement.