A surprisingly chilly fall day wasn’t enough to keep many members from attending an info session on sick leave on Tuesday. The noon-hour session in Gatineau was organized at the grassroots by four UNE Locals and other PSAC, CAPE and PIPSC Locals.
Regional Vice-President Richard Ballance was there to hand out hundreds of surgical masks to those who came to find out more about Harper’s proposed sick leave plan.
“The hospital mask is basically Treasury Board’s plan for sick leave,” said Andrew Gibson, president of 70312. “If you want express your discontent towards that plan, wear that mask, talk to your colleagues.”
Treasury Board announced its desire to wage war on our sick leave just a few weeks ago when it tabled its bargaining proposals. The employer is hoping to claw-back our sick leave from 15 days per year down to five and scrap our ability to accumulate sick leave credits.
“When we prepare for bargaining, we do that in the spirit of improving working conditions,” explained CAPE National President Claude Poirier, who is also a member of the EC bargaining team.
“Unfortunately, Treasury Board came to us with a mandate that is of a political nature.”
Poirier says his bargaining team is prepared to negotiate improvements to the sick leave system; but as it stands, the system works. Despite Tony Clement’s lies, the fact is that public service employees’ sick leave use is in line with their counterparts in the private sector.
The new plan will undoubtedly force employees to come to work sick, increasing the spread of viruses and posing serious health risks to those with weakened immune systems.
“If you are sick for a week – that’s it for the rest of the year. If you get sick again, you’ll go seven days without pay before even getting one cent,” added Poirier.
“We’re open to discussing sick leave provided that it’s something that makes sense. Right now, what we have on the table is something that doesn’t make any sense.”
But the message wasn’t all doom and gloom. Local presidents urged their members to get involved.
“It’s easy to be demoralized about what the government is proposing to do to our sick leave – but we don’t need to despair,” said Ryan Kelly, president of CAPE Local 514.
“What’s required is that rank-and-file employees – that’s you and me – get involved in their locals. While fighting back is possible, it’s going to require a degree of mobilization and membership participation that we haven’t seen in the federal sector in years.”
There are photos of this event on our Flickr photostream.