Joignez-vous à nous pour la Conférence sur la santé et la sécurité en milieu de travail du SEN qui aura lieu du 25 au 28 octobre 2018 à l’Hôtel Hilton du Lac Leamy, à Gatineau. Participez aux discussions sur cette thématique pour apprendre comment rendre votre milieu de travail plus sécuritaire et plus sain pour vous et vos pairs!
Join us at the UNE Occupational Health and Safety Conference, from October 25- 28, 2018 at the Hilton Lac Leamy Hotel in Gatineau. Be part of the discussions on how to make your workplace safer and healthier for you and your peers!
The next round of negotiations with the Employer to renew your collective agreement will be happening soon. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has the primary responsibility for collective bargaining, but before negotiations begin, the UNE is responsible for soliciting bargaining demands from its members.
This is your chance to have your say and address specific issues that require improvement in your collective agreement.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.”
Treasury Board did not update its leave system to include Union leave (Peoplesoft code 641) before January 1st. Treasury Board estimates it will have the necessary coding completed by February 15th.
Until the update to the leave system is completed, members will need to submit a paper request, including the union authorization letter, to their employer to claim Union leave. Code 641 should also be noted on any paper form submitted. The Employer will continue to invoice your Union for your salary expenses and your pay and benefits will continue uninterrupted.
All Union leave claimed during this time period will be entered into the leave system at a later date when the Employer completes its implementation of this new collective agreement provision.
At the Union of National Employees, and at the Public Service Alliance of Canada, much of what we do would not be possible without the tireless work of our many volunteers. That is why I am proud to take this opportunity to extend a sincere thanks to those members who have made a significant contribution through union activism.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada has a tradition of honouring long-term officers of the PSAC with service pins and certificates. These pins and certificates can be awarded to those with 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service.
If your Local wishes to nominate a member, please complete the application form and enclose a complete service history of the individual. Please pay careful attention when completing the period of service section of the form. The eligibility criteria and application forms can be found on the PSAC website.
Nominations must arrive at the UNE office no later than January 31, 2018.
In solidarity,
Kevin A. King
National President
Union of National Employees, PSAC
