Posted on

International Francophonie Day

March 17, 2022

In North America, the Francophonie is a historical and geographic fact. More than 14 million speakers contribute to the vitality and visibility of the French language. In Canada, more than a quarter of the population considers itself to be Francophone, a reality that was recognized when Parliament adopted the Official Languages Act at the end of the 1960s.

It is therefore normal that institutions from the government or other sectors reflect this reality by recognizing the rights of individuals and communities to receive services and communications in the language of their choice, and by making federal institutions a place of work that is conducive to the use of both official languages in regions that have been designated as bilingual. However, beyond laws that have been adopted, the everyday reality is quite different. Even though the Official Languages Act has made French one of two official languages in Canada, its minority status causes it to be constantly threatened.

To wit, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is forecasting that it will end the current year with five times more complaints than the annual average. In addition, according to a recent survey conducted by the Office of the Commissioner, close to half of federal public servants feel uncomfortable in using French at work, and this in the administrative regions where bilingualism is required. Many Francophone employees don’t feel like they can use the official language of their choice at work, and a good number of them experience organizational difficulties in working in French, especially in a context where the English language predominates.

There are many examples that illustrate how the use of French is threatened in federal institutions. The Francophone Committee therefore believes that the union movement, especially the one representing the federal public service, must be exemplary regarding the respect of linguistic rights of activists. It is therefore normal for structures within unions to ensure the respect of the right of members to advocate in French.

It would be fitting and essential that PSAC create a national Francophone Committee, which would have the same mandate as the one of SEN, as promised during PSAC’s last Convention held in 2018. The existence of UNE’s Francophone Committee is still totally pertinent, and its members are still, ten years after its creation, advocating for the respect and promotion of the French language within UNE.

The UNE’s Francophone Committee wishes you a great International Francophonie Day!

Posted on

Behind the pay problems: ‘It feels like there’s a sword hanging over my head’

When Tristan Drozdiak received $15,000 in lump sum payments in 2018 compensating him for two years of underpayments, he assumed he could leave his Phoenix nightmare behind him. But four years later, his future is anything but certain after receiving a letter claiming he now owes $3,000 in overpayments. 

“Receiving a bill was a massive surprise for me,” said Tristan. “I thought my situation had been resolved for four years. Then I find out, out of the blue, that it’s not resolved and it’s as complicated as ever.” 

The ongoing pay issues forced Tristan and his now fiancée, Teri, to put off buying a home back in 2016. Now, as they plan their future together, Tristan has an uneasy feeling that his Phoenix issues may never be resolved. 

“We already waited to buy a house, and now we’re planning for a wedding and maybe kids. But who’s to say I’m not going to get contacted in another four years? It feels like there’s a sword hanging over my head and I shouldn’t have to deal with that stress.” 

“It feels like there’s a sword hanging over my head and I shouldn’t have to deal with that stress.” 

Tristan began his public service career in 2013 and moved into his current role as an interpreter with Parks Canada in Edmonton in 2015. For two years between 2016 and 2018, the PSAC-UNE member was underpaid by $7 per hour on each pay, and at one point was overpaid $3,000 in one month. 

Although his field unit tried to support him, they didn’t have answers, and it took more than a year of back and forth with the Pay Centre before he got confirmation that the system had been updated to indicate there was a problem. Meanwhile, Tristan created a spreadsheet to try to keep track of what was happening but found it too frustrating and complicated to manage. 

“It was very difficult to track what the heck happened between 2016 and 2018,” said Tristan. “In addition to everything else, there were little mistakes that happened constantly on my paycheques that to this day I’m not sure how to untangle.” 

In the summer of 2018, two lump sum payments appeared in his bank account. However, he never received an explanation or breakdown of the payments and couldn’t understand how the numbers were determined. To complicate matters, he also received the retroactive pay he was owed after the new Parks Canada collective agreement went into effect on May 31, 2018. 

“I appreciate the constant advocacy from PSAC — it makes me feel like someone’s actually in our corner.” 

When he received a letter from the government earlier this year claiming he owed $3,000 in overpayments, he turned to PSAC for support to escalate his case and get to the bottom of his pay issues. PSAC has helped more than 10,000 members fix their Phoenix issues, whether it was with their pay, pension, health care benefits, or severance. 

“I appreciate the constant advocacy from PSAC,” said Tristan. “Just the fact that you are pushing and not letting things slide makes me feel like someone’s actually in our corner.” 

If you have a pay issue you haven’t been able to resolve with the Pay Centre and would like our Phoenix team to escalate your case, reach out to us and select the Phoenix problem you’re experiencing from the dropdown menu.

Posted on

SV bargaining: the employer’s lack of engagement is beginning to show

March 9, 2022

Tensions rose a notch at the March 2 and 3 Operational Services (SV group) bargaining session. After more than six months of bargaining and a range of demands from our team, lack of progress at the bargaining table is being met with growing impatience.

We are still waiting for a response from the Treasury Board regarding our wage package. Our wage proposals were submitted in January and a response was expected by March, but the employer is dawdling. Meanwhile, many SV members are experiencing a widening wage gap compared to their private-sector counterparts. The employer can’t keep taking the situation lightly.

Concessions on flexible work schedules

During bargaining, the employer made unfair demands regarding flexible work schedules for SV members. Variable overtime is currently time and three quarters, but the employer wishes to reverse our gains by pushing for time and a half.

This is totally unacceptable and the SV team refuses to make any concessions on this front.

Latest demands

The SV team has finalized its demands, which now include increasing access to professional development by ensuring all members can request it and receive a timely response.

Bargaining toolkit

Stay informed and engaged during this round of negotiations using our Treasury Board bargaining toolkit. Read our conversation starters to help guide your discussions with colleagues on some of our most important bargaining issues and download the bargaining graphics to show your support for the bargaining teams.

Show your support

Show your support with our bargaining graphics:

Stay in touch

Please be sure to keep your contact information up to date to receive all the latest bargaining updates.

Source: SV bargaining: the employer’s lack of engagement is beginning to show | Public Service Alliance of Canada (psacunion.ca)

Posted on

General Strike at the Office of the Auditor General for the Audit Services Group

March 2, 2022

It has been 3 months since the beginning of different job actions at the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). The PSAC-UNE members of Local 70153 (Audit Services Group, ASG) are facing tumultuous contract negotiations. Earlier this week, the members of that Local went a step further and decided to go on a general strike for the first time in the history of the OAG.

The group, 75% of whom are women, plays a critical role in ensuring Canada’s federal and territorial governments are accountable to the public. These PSAC-UNE members perform a wide range of tasks within the OAG, from professional development, finance, contracting and procurement to translation and editing of the different audit reports.

Yet, it is also the lowest paid group at the OAG. The workers are asking for fair compensation, but Auditor General Karen Hogan and the Treasury Board, which oversees bargaining at the OAG, keeps rejecting their proposal.

The ongoing key bargaining issues are:

  • An economic increase of a patterned settlement with the core public administration
  • The establishment of a designed pay grid similar to what federal public servants get in other departments
  • The fact that the employer keeps on saying they have no mandate to bargain

A Public Interest Commission (PIC) report was received last year which was favourable to this workforce. A request was made to move their dispute settlement route to binding arbitration. That was denied by their employer, knowing the PIC’s report would be a catalyst for the ASG to achieve a fair and just collective agreement. Our request to meet with Karen Hogan and Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board Secretariat, for the benefit of our members, was also unanswered.

Pay During a Strike

You should receive your regular salary during this strike. However, if the employer stops paying you, PSAC has a strike fund, and you are entitled to $75 a day, or to a maximum of $375 per week.

We are calling on Union solidarity and asking for donations to Local 70153 by contacting the UNE Finance department and let them know how much your Local would like to donate. You can contact UNE Finance & Administration Director Georges St-Jean at georges.stjean@une-sen.org.

For individual donations, please contact Marie-Ève Tremblay at UNElocal70153@gmail.com.


Individual donations can be sent to:
Local 70153
C/o Marie-Ève Tremblay
2071 Landry Street
Clarence Creek (ON)
K0A 1N0

OAG, get a mandate, and return to the table! UNE proudly represents our 170 members at the OAG and will support them in their fight to get a fair contract.

Posted on

SSO Bargaining: Standing strong for a fair deal

February 28, 2022

The Statistics Survey Operations (SSO) bargaining team made progress on several proposals during talks with the employer February 15-17.  

There are several key bargaining issues still outstanding, including job security, hours of work, overtime pay, allowances, leave, general economic increases, and market adjustments. Our team is calling on the employer to respect the important work of SSO members by providing fair wage increases and improved terms and conditions. 

As always, the team remains firmly committed to achieving wage parity for SSO workers in line with other federal employees in the core public administration.  

Our team remains hopeful that we can continue to make meaningful progress during our upcoming sessions. If we hit a stalemate with the employer at the table, our team will file for arbitration. If we are forced to move to arbitration, the union and employer will each appoint a person to represent their interests on an arbitration board, along with an independent third person to act as the chairperson. Each party will make its case to the arbitration board, who will consider the submissions and make decisions about the outstanding demands and issue a report. Those decisions are final and binding and will form part of the new collective agreement.  

Our next bargaining session is scheduled from March 1-3. 

Source: SSO Bargaining: Standing strong for a fair deal  | Public Service Alliance of Canada (psacunion.ca)

Posted on

A Product of Black History

February 17, 2022

We must accept that Black History is inextricably intertwined with the history of the world. It may not be accurately depicted in the history books, but it has and always will be reflected in our culture, our daily lives and how we perceive the world. Our experiences have shaped our past and will continue to shape our future. However, the success of our future is dependent on how successful we are in breaking those bonds of the past.

My bondage began as a little boy in grade 3. In the first history lesson of my life, the first line in our history textbook read… “In 1652, the white man brought civilization to South Africa….”. Thus began my indoctrination. A history lesson that was read by a non-white teacher, from a book written by a white historian to a class full of impressionable, young non-white minds.

After that class I remember thinking to myself that we should be grateful to the white man for saving us from living an uncivilized life in the jungle. I believed that they were the superior race, and we need to be subservient and respect them for what they have given us. This is the mindset that I carried for the next ten years until I had the opportunity to travel overseas and as a teenager interacted with white people for the first time in my life. I realized then that they were not superior human beings. Like us not understanding them, they were also ignorant of our culture, our way of life and most importantly, they were not aware of our level of intelligence. Once we got to truly know each other, the cloud of ignorance that bonded us in hate, began to dissipate. When I returned to South Africa, this enlightening experience inspired me to become actively involved with the student anti-apartheid movement. I believed that we needed to make everyone aware that at the end of the day we are all one people. There is no inferior race on this planet. We all just want to be accepted as equals and to be treated with respect.

A few years later when I returned to live in Canada, I continued to make Canadians aware of the suffering endured by people in other parts of the world and how appreciative we should all be for living in a country that has a “Charter of Rights and Freedoms”, were we all are equal under the law.

However, the more time I spent in the country and the more I became involved in the Canadian society, the more I became aware that some sections of society were treated more equal than others. Thus began my mission in Canada to confront discrimination whenever and wherever I encounter it. Education was a big part of that mission. When confronted with discriminatory behavior, I took the time to make people understand why behavior like that was offensive. I conducted workshops and delivered speeches to high school students, explaining the horrors of genocide, apartheid and slavery. I believe that the earlier we educate people on the indignity and suffering endured by the oppressed in our society, the easier it becomes to promote tolerance and understanding in the long term.

Today, the world that we live in is a much better place than the one that our ancestors lived in. It is because of the sacrifices that they had made to ensure that their descendants can avoid the same pain that they endured. Therefore, I am prepared to make as many sacrifices as needed to ensure that our next generation experiences less hate, discrimination, bigotry, racism, and harassment than we did. Together we can make our world a better place for all.

On Feb 10, 1990, Nelson Mandela was told that he would be released from Prison. His famous words outside his home in Soweto read: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

”Practice the vocabulary of Love – unlearn the language of hate and contempt” – Baba

Sam Padayachee
UNE National Equity Representative for Racialized Members

Posted on

Parks Canada team discusses key issues ahead of new bargaining round

February 8, 2022

Following up on their meeting in December 2021, the Parks Canada team met to prioritize their outstanding issues, including constraining the employer’s right to demand medical certificates, and parity between park wardens and other enforcement officers in the federal public sector.  

With seasonal and term employees making up almost half of Parks Canada’s workforce, job security and precarious work remain areas of serious concern, alongside harassment and discrimination, acting pay, Indigenous language allowances, vacation leave, parental leave, workplace accommodation and equity.  

The team will meet one more time to finalize their proposals before entering a new round of bargaining March 1, 2022.   

Show your support and solidarity for your bargaining team by downloading our electronic bargaining materials. Use your group’s video background during your virtual work meetings, update your profile photo with the social media frame, and print a poster for your work area. 

Stay tuned for updates  

To ensure that you receive all the latest updates about Parks Canada bargaining as we negotiate your next contract, verify that your contact information is up to date via the member portal. 

Source: Parks Canada team discusses key issues ahead of new bargaining round | Public Service Alliance of Canada (psacunion.ca)

Posted on

Black History Month: did you know?

Happy Black History Month to you all, from the PSAC BC Racially Visible Caucus!

In December 1995, Canadian House of Common has proclaimed February as Black History Month in Canada following a motion introduced by Honourable Jean Augustine.

February is the month to celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians and their communities who, throughout history, have done so much to make Canada the culturally diverse, compassionate, and prosperous nation it is today. Please let’s take that opportunity to learn and educate ourselves with one story at a time. 

Hogan’s Alley

Do you see the viaduct in that picture? This is where Vancouver’s Black Community used to live in the 1900s.

History has shown that institutional racism often targets marginalized communities. Hogan’s Alley, in Vancouver, is one such example. The first Black immigrants (of African Descent) arrived in British Columbia from California in 1858.

They settled in Vancouver Islands but began migrating to Vancouver in the early 1900s. Hogan’s Alley was ethnically diverse but had a large cluster of Black businesses and residents (reaching over 800) that formed the nucleus of Vancouver’s first concentrated African Canadian community.

Along with the resident population, the area was a destination spot for Black train porters on layover, Black vaudeville circuits coming through via California and popular Black musicians of the time. However, the vision of urban renewal gradually displaced and eventually demolished most of Hogan’s Alley in 1972, making way for the Georgia Viaduct.

So, what was once a vibrant cultural hub for great food and jazz music in the 1960s was quickly transformed into the noise of vehicles as they passed by on the new viaduct. Like the destruction of Africville in Nova Scotia, another Black community in Vancouver was demolished. The question now is which marginalized community will be next?

For more information, watch the video: “A PLACE TO BELONG: Hogan’s Alley” as well as “The story of Africville” and “28 Moments of Black Canadian History | Africville“

Posted on

Common Issues bargaining: Time to make work-life balance a priority

February 4, 2022

As Canada continues to navigate the pandemic, the federal government should be a leader when it comes to offering better work-life balance to workers with remote work and the right to disconnect. But Treasury Board made it clear that they don’t recognize the need when the Common Issues bargaining table January 31 to February 3.

The pandemic has radically changed the way our members work. We continued to serve Canadians, whether we were working from home or in the workplace and proved that it’s time to rethink the future of work. The results of PSAC’s bargaining survey of federal public service employees showed three out of four respondents have been mostly working remotely since the pandemic started. Another 90 per cent of respondents want to continue working remotely after the pandemic.

PSAC’s proposal for remote work would give employees the opportunity to voluntarily participate in remote work – or not — based on their unique and individual circumstances. It also outlines the process for requesting a remote work agreement, makes sure workers are properly equipped for remote work, and ensures their requests are not unreasonably denied.

Treasury Board refused PSAC’s proposal, arguing it’s unnecessary given their Directive on Telework. But the government’s policy, which came into effect in April 2020, is already out of date two years into the pandemic and leaves far too much up to the discretion of individual managers which could lead to discrimination against some workers.

Remote work has become a part of everyday life for most workers and is widely supported by the majority of Canadians. It’s time for the government to look to the future by enshrining it into our collective agreements.

The right to disconnect

That’s why PSAC is also fighting for the right to disconnect. The increase in remote work has blurred the lines between work life and private life. We need to ensure employees aren’t subject to unreasonable expectations outside of work hours with clear language in our contracts.

Smartphones and other technology shouldn’t be used by employers to force employees to work longer hours, but that’s exactly what’s happening. One out of five respondents in PSAC’s survey said they felt they were expected to look at emails or work outside of their scheduled working hours at least a few times a week.

Our proposal is clear — employees should be under no obligation to answer calls or emails outside of normal working hours, or be disciplined for exercising their rights, unless they are on standby.

It’s not complicated, but the employer doesn’t want to acknowledge that our members have the right to disconnect. We will keep on fighting because workers shouldn’t feel tethered to their work by having to check their emails and work phones after hours.

Wages and new submissions

Despite having received our wage position last December, Treasury Board once again came to the table empty handed. They weren’t even prepared to discuss our general economic increase proposal. We expect the employer to provide a full response to our proposal for fair wages that reflects the rising cost of living when we meet in March.

PSAC also submitted new memorandums of understanding. These MOUs aim to ensure continued financial support for the Joint Learning Program, establish an ongoing Child Care Joint Union-Management Committee, and recognize Treasury Board’s commitment to address issues of diversity and inclusion in the workplace in collaboration with PSAC.

Next steps

The next bargaining dates for the Common Issues team, March 29–31, 2022, will be a critical moment in our negotiations.

We know firsthand the impact rising inflation is having on our families, and we should expect to mobilize and take action if the employer doesn’t come to the table with an offer that keeps up with skyrocketing prices.

With over 165,000 members in bargaining with the government this year, we have a lot of power at the table. We can leverage our strength in numbers to improve our working lives and push the government to lead by example, making life better for all workers.

Get involved

Register now for our upcoming national panel discussion on remote work and work-life balance to learn more about this important issue. At the end of the panel, you will have the chance to take part in a digital action with members across the country to support the fight for remote work and improved work-life balance.

You can also continue to show your support by using our virtual bargaining materials: 

Please be sure to keep your contact information up to date via the member portal to receive all the latest updates as we negotiate your next contract. 

Source: Common Issues bargaining: Time to make work-life balance a priority  | Public Service Alliance of Canada (psacunion.ca)

Posted on

BLACK HISTORY MONTH – February and Forever: Celebrating Black History today and every day

February 1, 2022

In February 2008, Senator Donald Oliver, the first Black man appointed to the Senate, introduced the Motion to Recognize Contributions of Black Canadians and February as Black History Month.

Black History Month exists to remind us of all the rich contributions made within our society by people of African descent, and of their ongoing struggle for equity and social justice. This is a time to celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians who, throughout history, have done so much to make Canada the culturally diverse nation we know today. It is also an opportunity for all Canadians, including our younger generations, to be reminded and to learn about the experiences and contributions of Black Canadians in our society, and the vital role this community has played throughout our shared history.

From abolitionists to war heroes, to sports celebrities and inventors, we celebrate the distinguished Black Canadians who have helped to make Canada a rich multicultural land. During this month I encourage UNE members to make the effort to educate themselves about some of some of these achievements. In doing so, you will become aware of how Black culture has influenced our lifestyles today…. from the poetry and music that we listen to, the food that we eat, the clothes that we wear and to advancement made in Science and Innovations.

We can no longer choose to ignore such a rich history that has had such a profound influence on all our lives today. There are many organizations and educational resources across the country devoted to the promotion and awareness of Black Canadian history.

Sam Padayachee
National Equity Representative for Racialized Members

Useful Link: Black history organizations and educational resources