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EB bargaining team reaches tentative agreement with Treasury Board

PSAC and Treasury Board have reached a tentative agreement for the Education and Library Science (EB) Group, which covers more than 900 federal public service workers. The deal includes significant breakthroughs on “common issues,” such as sick leave and workforce adjustment, the details of which were hammered out by the common issues committee last December. The EB team was also able to achieve market adjustments for every classification in the bargaining unit.

“This is yet another victory in what has been a very challenging set of negotiations with Treasury Board,” said PSAC National President Robyn Benson. “It is through the hard work and commitment of the members of our EB bargaining team, along with the steadfast support and solidarity from the bargaining unit members, that we were able to reach this agreement.”

Common issues need to be implemented at all tables

The issues agreed to in December between the employer and the common issues committee, composed of members from all five Treasury Board tables, need to be accepted by each specific table. EB is the second table to formally accept the work of the common issues committee, which covers sick leave and the workforce adjustment appendix.

Sick leave

  • The sick leave articles of our collective agreements will remain unchanged.
  • The parties have negotiated a Memorandum of Agreement to establish a Task Force to develop recommendations on measures to improve employee wellness and reintegration of employees.
  • Any future enhancements to the regime would need to be negotiated and agreed to by both parties.
  • PSAC’s four principles are included in the MOA: sick leave provisions will be contained in the collective agreement, provide for wage replacement, protect and grandfather sick leave banks, and will not be administered by a third-party provider. Any enhanced sick leave regime shall contain, at minimum, these four principles.

Workforce adjustment appendix

  • What we achieved represents the most significant improvements in workforce adjustment since it was first signed as an appendix into PSAC collective agreements in 1998.
  • Changes will reduce involuntary layoffs by allowing volunteers to come forward to leave the public service during times of workforce adjustment.
  • Employees will now have up to fifteen months to find an alternation match.
  • More union involvement, ensuring employees have the right to union representation during the process.
  • Limits to contracting out.
  • Improvements to the monetary provisions, including the education allowance and transition support measures.

Monetary gains

The agreement with the EB table contains significant improvements to monetary compensation for members. This includes a wage increase and a wage adjustment for all groups. The total compensation for all EB members amounts to a minimum increase of five-and-a-half per cent over the four years of the collective agreement, plus a $650 signing bonus. The wage increase is 1.25 per cent for each year, plus 0.5 to four-per-cent market adjustments for 2016.

An appendix that provides a framework for working towards a national rate of pay for the EB-EST 12 month teachers has been added to the collective agreement. An allowance for EB members who work in Correctional Services Canada and more support for First Nations teachers have also been achieved.

Helping workers meet family demands

A committee will be established to look at childcare needs. Better family leave, including provisions that are more respectful and inclusive of Indigenous cultures, have also been negotiated.

Other notable gains

This agreement has language recognizing gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination.

The Memorandum of Understanding that established the Task Force on Mental Health in the workplace is also contained in this agreement. The mandate of the task force includes identifying ways to reduce and eliminate the stigma associated with mental health issues, improving communication on mental health challenges in the workplace, and implementing the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. The parties came to an agreement on the MOU earlier in the bargaining process, in 2015, and the task force has been hard at work ever since.

Source: www.psacunion.ca

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UNE Convention and Resolutions Call-Out

The Union of National Employees 2017 Convention will be held at the The Westin Hotel in Ottawa, Ontario from August 23 to 27, 2017. Before we start paving the way forward for our union, there are a few important things you need to do.

Make sure your Local is in conformance
You can only attend convention if your Local is in conformance. For a complete list of documents needed from your Local, see the convention checklist.

Elect delegates and their alternates
Delegates and alternates are elected during general local meetings. The number of delegates per Local is determined by the number of members it has in good standing six months before the start of convention (bylaw 6, section 12):

  1. Four to 100 members: one delegate;
  2. One delegate for each 100 members or portion thereof to a maximum of five delegates.

UNE will cover expenses such as loss of salary, travel, accommodations, meals and family care. For more information on this, please consult the cheat-sheet. Members with physical limitations, allergies, environmental sensitivities or special dietary requirements will have the opportunity to identify accommodation needs during the registration process.

Observers
Locals can also send observers to convention at the Local’s expense. These members can attend convention, but they can not participate in debate or vote. There is a $75 registration fee for observers to cover the cost of convention materials.

Submit Credential Forms

Locals must submit credential forms for each of their delegates, alternates and observers. Credential forms for delegates and alternates must include a copy of the general local meeting minutes showing the election of those members as delegates or alternates. The credential forms are included on our convention page.  These forms must be emailed to events@une-sen.org or  faxed and marked (credential form) to the attention of Suzanne Boucher at 613-560-4208.

Convention Committees
Delegates to convention will be able to express their interest in participating in one of the three convention committees tasked with reviewing resolutions submitted to convention. These committees will meet in Ottawa from June 4 to 6, 2017.

Registration Deadline

To be recognized as a delegate to convention, members must complete the online registration (to be opened in February) and submit the following documents by April 21, 2017 at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time;

  1. Credential forms, including meeting minutes showing election of delegates and alternates
  2. Local financial documents in conformance with UNE Bylaws and Policies;

Members who miss the deadline WILL NOT be able to participate on convention committees and are considered late delegates.
Late delegates are seated at convention by way of procedural motion during the early stages of the opening of our Convention.

Questions about convention logistics and registration?
Please contact Suzanne Boucher at events@une-sen.org or by phone at 613-560-4359 or 1-800-663-6685.

RESOLUTIONS

Option 1

Locals should appoint a convention resolutions committee; these are normally made up of three to five members. Some Locals may prefer to appoint a committee for each resolution topic: constitution and bylaws, finance, and general resolutions.

Your Local should issue a notice asking members to submit resolutions to your convention resolutions committee. Allow plenty of time for the committee to prepare a report. Members of the committee should also be encouraged to submit their own resolutions.

Each committee’s report and additional resolutions should be presented during a general membership meeting. This meeting should provide ample time to debate resolutions before members cast a vote.

Option 2

Any member in good standing can submit a resolution to Convention by having it co-signed by five other members in good standing.

Submit your resolution online

You should submit your resolutions electronically on our website. The online submission form can be found here.

Completing this process significantly reduces the time required to prepare resolutions for our committees’ review. If you do not have internet access, you can submit your resolutions by mail or fax.

Submit supporting documentation

The resolutions you submit online must also be supported by hardcopy versions of either the signed minutes verifying that the resolution was adopted during a general membership meeting or the resolutions form co-signed by five other members in good standing. You can download the resolution template on our convention page here.

Please send these hard copies to the attention of Ateau Zola by email at resolutions@une-sen.org, by fax at 613-560-5208, or by mail at:

Union of National Employees
900-150 Isabella St.
Ottawa, ON
K1S 1V7

Resolutions received after April 21, 2017 at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time will be deemed late and will be dealt with after all other resolutions have been dealt with.

Questions about resolutions?
Please contact Ateau Zola at resolutions@une-sen.org or by phone at 613-560-4343 or 1-800-663-6685.

 

In solidarity,

Doug Marshall
National President
Union of National Employees, PSAC

 

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FAQ about our PA group tentative agreement

When will we vote on the deal?

PSAC is currently preparing the ratification kits for the PA membership. These kits will explain the changes that were negotiated and why our PA Bargaining Team is recommending that members accept this tentative agreement. Information meetings will be held across the country so that PA members can hear from a Bargaining Team member and ask questions prior to casting their ballot on the tentative agreement. Given the size and diversity of the PA membership, the ratification vote process takes approximately six to eight weeks to conclude. Information on ratification meetings will be shared via the PSAC national and regional websites when it becomes available.

Ratification votes are being planned for the near future. Check the PSAC National Union’s website for planned dates and sign up for email updates to stay informed.

When will the deal come into effect?

If a majority of members vote “yes” in the ratification vote, PSAC will meet with the employer to sign your new collective agreement. With the exception of wages, which are retroactive, the new negotiated provisions come into effect on date of signing, unless otherwise specified.

Who will get back pay (retroactive pay) for the negotiated economic increases?

The new collective agreement is retroactive to June 20, 2014, expiring June 20, 2018. This means that you are entitled to back pay for the period of time you were employed and a PA member from June 20, 2014.

When can I expect the employer to pay the retroactive pay?

The employer has 150 days from the date of signing to implement the provisions of the new collective agreement, including adjusting rates of pay and issuing retroactive pay.

Who will get the signing bonus?

As part of your economic package for this tentative agreement, a $650 signing bonus will be given to any employee who is a member of the PA bargaining unit on the date of signing of the new agreement. The employer has 150 days after the date of signing to pay the bonus.

If I retired recently or left the PA bargaining unit, will I get the signing bonus?

Unfortunately, no. The signing bonus is only given to members of the unit who are employed in the PA bargaining unit on the date of signing.

If I am eligible for either the Compensation Advisor Allowance or the Correctional Service Specific Duty Allowance, will the increase be retroactive?

Increases to allowances are not retroactive. The employer has 150 days after the date of signing to implement the changes and issue payment of the allowances.

Source: www.psacunion.ca

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UPDATED – Tentative agreement reached for PA table

A tentative agreement between PSAC and Treasury Board has been reached for the PA table, covering over 68,000 federal public service workers. The deal includes significant breakthroughs on “common issues,” such as sick leave and workforce adjustment, the details of which were hammered out by the common issues committee earlier this week.

“I am proud of our negotiating teams for standing strong during these two long, difficult years at the table. A deal for our largest group, as well as agreements on key common issues, is a significant victory,” said Robyn Benson, PSAC National President. “I am equally proud of our members for their strength and solidarity. It is because of them that our teams were able to prevent the concessions on sick leave that the employer had been pushing for.”

Common issues need to be implemented at all tables

The issues agreed to between the employer and the common issues committee, composed of members from all five Treasury Board tables, will need to be accepted by each specific table. PA is the first table to formally accept the work of the common issues committee, which covers sick leave and the workforce adjustment appendix.

Sick leave

  • The sick leave articles of our collective agreements will remain unchanged.
  • The parties have negotiated a Memorandum of Agreement to establish a Task Force to develop recommendations on measures to improve employee wellness and reintegration of employees.
  • Any future enhancements to the regime would need to be negotiated and agreed to by both parties.
  • PSAC’s four principles are included in the MOA: sick leave provisions will be contained in the collective agreement, provide for wage replacement, protect and grandfather sick leave banks, and will not be administered by a third-party provider. Any enhanced sick leave regime shall contain, at minimum, these four principles.

Workforce adjustment appendix

  • What we achieved represents the most significant improvements in workforce adjustment since it was first signed as an appendix into PSAC collective agreements in 1998.
  • Changes will reduce involuntary layoffs by allowing volunteers to come forward to leave the public service during times of workforce adjustment.
  • Employees will now have up to fifteen months to find an alternation match.
  • More union involvement, ensuring employees have the right to union representation during the process.
  • Limits to contracting out.
  • Improvements to the monetary provisions, including the education allowance and transition support measures.

Monetary gains

The agreement with the PA table contains significant improvements to monetary compensation for members. This includes a wage increase and allowances for certain occupations, such as compensation advisors and employees of Correctional Service of Canada. The total compensation for all PA members amounts to a minimum increase of five and a half percent over the four years of the collective agreement, plus a $650 signing bonus.

The wage increase is 1.25 per cent for each year, plus a point five percent (0.5%) market adjustment for 2016.

Helping workers meet family demands

It has been agreed that a committee will be established to look at childcare needs. Better family leave, including provisions for extended family, have also been negotiated.

Other notable gains

The PA team has achieved improvements to working conditions for members working in call centres.

This agreement has language recognizing gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination.

The Memorandum of Understanding that established the task force on Mental Health in the workplace is also contained in this agreement. The mandate of the task force includes identifying ways to reduce and eliminate the stigma associated with mental health issues, improving communication on mental health challenges in the workplace, and implementing the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.  The MOU was agreed to earlier in the bargaining process, in 2015, and the task force has already been hard at work ever since.

Attachments:

PDF icon 20161217_barg_pa_ca_summary_table_bi.pdf

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Online action calls on Minister Morneau to abandon Bill C-27

billc27

Bill C-27, An Act to amend the Pension Benefits Standards Act, is an attack on the retirement security of Canadians.

This bill will allow employers in the federal private sector and Crown Corporations to shift from good, defined benefit plans that provide secure and predictable pension benefits, into the much less secure form of target benefits. If passed, this bill would open the door to a disturbing trend of shifting all the risk of pension plans onto workers and retirees.

In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that defined benefit pension plans that workers and retirees have already paid into should not be retroactively changed into target benefit plans. Yet, this is exactly what Bill C-27 will do.

Send a letter to Minister

PSAC has always stood for retirement security and opposed any move to eliminate defined benefit (DB) pension plans. We urge our members to send a letter to Finance Minister Bill Morneau to tell him and the Liberal government to abandon Bill C-27.

Source: www.psacunion.com

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Update on Treasury Board bargaining: Dates with mediator

 tbbargupdate

The Common Issues committee and PA bargaining team will resume negotiations with Treasury Board, with the assistance of a mediator, the week of December 12.

PSAC and the Employer returned to extended negotiations from November 1-9, after the Liberal government promised to bring a new mandate to the table.

At the end of that bargaining session, PSAC proposed continuing discussions with the assistance of a mediator. The government has since agreed to this.

More information will be provided once it becomes available.

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PSAC Scholarships advance education opportunities

scholarships

Each year, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Union of National Employees (UNE) award various scholarships. Below is a list of this year’s PSAC winners. The UNE wishes to convey its congratulations to all winners for your accomplishments, and good luck with your studies. For more information on UNE scholarships and bursaries, please visit http://en.une-sen.org/what_we_do/hea.php.

PSAC 2016 Scholarship Winners:

National Awards

Charles-Antoine Barbeau-Meunier – $4,000 AGR-PSAC

Charles-Antoine resides in Sherbrooke, Quebec and is the son of Gisèle Barbeau from Union of National Employees, Local 10021.

Maxime Robinson – $4,000 Coughlin-PSAC

Maxime is from Gatineau, Quebec and his father, Paul Robinson, is a member of the Union of National Employees, Local 70130.

Julia Gaspar – $3,000 AGR-PSAC

Julia is from Dartmouth, Nova-Scotia and her mother, Helen Gaspar, is a member of the Union of National Employees, Local 80178.

Samantha Breckenridge – $3,000 Coughlin-PSAC

Samantha resides in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and her mother, Michelle Gola, is a member of Union of National Employees, Local 40195.

Members’ Awards

Patrick Thomson – $2,000 PSAC Members’

Patrick lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He is a member of the Union of National Employees, Local 40107.

Maude Éloïse Saulnier – $1,000 National Capital Region

Maude Éloïse is from Gatineau, Québec. She is the daughter of David Cardinal, member of the Union of National Employees, Local 70027.

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Invisible Disabilities

dec3disabilities

By June Dale

“What’s it like to live with invisible disabilities?”
“You look tired, didn’t you get enough sleep last night?”
“Haven’t you finished reading that yet? Come on, keep up! I haven’t got all day.”
“You can’t open the jar, here, give it to me.”

Some days are better than others. I can move about freely and with a minimum amount of pain, while others face anxiety or depression.

Standing for what I would consider a long period of time causes my leg to become numb, then painful, then the swelling begins. How I would love to go to an outdoor concert and stand with the crowd to enjoy the music. Spending time in big crowds causes some individuals an increase in anxiety. They would love to go to that party on Saturday night. Instead they will spend another Saturday night at home. People look at me as though everything is fine, when in fact I am in physical pain.

Then, of course, there is the medication. Too many for my liking, but that is what I need sometimes to get through the day. If I forget to take them at the right time, the repercussions are interesting. My face starts to hurt. My vision becomes blurry. My thought processes become foggy. I always have a dosage ready, stored in my bag or my desk drawer.

Some people “look” like the rest of the population. No one would ever know that the individual has a disability because it it’s invisible. The individual may have a hard time reading or performing simple calculations and tasks for daily living. Tasks such as typing or writing a document could be a painful and exhausting experience. It may be that the individual is straining to hear the conversation around them, or the voices are so loud it hurts to listen to others.

In this day and age of adaptive technology, many can function in a world where the majority can do daily tasks. However, some places do not have this technology and those who experience invisible disabilities struggle in their own way, day-to-day.

I once read a story about spoons. It is called the Spoon Theory. It resonated with me.
Today is a good day for me. My wish is that you have a good day as well.

June Dale is the Union of National Employees Human Rights Representative for the National Capital Region – Treasury Board.

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Alert: Collection agency calls on Phoenix payments not legitimate

phoenixcollection

PSAC members have told us that they are getting phone calls from third parties identifying themselves as collection agencies. The caller says they are collecting Phoenix payments on behalf of the government. These calls are not legitimate.

Government not using collection agencies

The government has confirmed they are not using collection agencies to collect payments related to Phoenix.

Contact your department

If you receive a call about monies owing due to Phoenix from a collection agency, contact your department or agency immediately. Do not make any arrangements to pay money to a third party.

Report it

Make sure to also report the call to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

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Parks bargaining team tables wage proposal with Agency

parksbargainupdate

Our bargaining team met with the Agency November 16 – 17.

We tabled a wage proposal that calls for annual increases of 3% in each year of a three-year agreement.

Other proposals tabled

  • Proposal to return Parks Canada to the National Joint Council
  • New language to enshrine Leave with Income Averaging, Self-Funded Leave, and Pre-Retirement Leave into the collective agreement.
  • New language regarding the Joint Learning Program.

Short term disability

Back in June, the Agency tabled a revised Short-Term Disability proposal to replace our current sick leave provisions. We rejected this proposal in June and it was not discussed during this round.

Upcoming bargaining dates

Negotiations are tentatively set to resume on January 30, 2017.

Our bargaining team thanks you for your ongoing patience and support.