Bargaining

Earlier this year, Treasury Board announced it would be implementing a “pay in arrears” system for federal government employees as part of their Pay Modernization Initiative.Public service employees are paid on a “current” basis. They receive their pay on a Wednesday for the 10 day pay period that ends on that same day. As the pay needs to be processed several days in advance, any changes to an individual’s pay in those last few days (such as leaves or acting pay) is not accounted for immediately, but requires pay adjustments in subsequent paycheques.

Tony Clement, the President of Treasury Board, was interviewed on CBC radio in Ottawa. His contempt for federal public sector workers and his refusal to answer reasonable questions about Bill C-4 is well worth listening to ...

Have Your Say!We would like to begin by thanking you for your patience and all the support we received from PSAC/UPCE members. It has sustained the team through what has been a very difficult round of bargaining.During these negotiations, the team worked hard to achieve the membership mandate:protecting and maintaining the existing Collective Agreement provisions for current and future UPCE members.

After two years and eight months of negotiations, four final offers, petition drives, picketing, a final offer forced vote thrown out by a court challenge, the filing of unfair labour practice complaints and a marathon, round-the-clock 28-hour bargaining session, our Bargaining Team reached an agreement with Treasury Board/CBSA at 11:00 am the morning of Tuesday October 22th, 2013.

(Ottawa) October 29, 2013 – Leaders of the federal public sector unions (the National Joint Council bargaining agents) met yesterday and released the following statement on the government’s proposed changes to federal labour relations legislation:The federal public sector bargaining agents call on the government to withdraw its sweeping and unfair changes to federal labour relations legislation from its omnibus budget implementation act. Instead, the government should engage in real consultation on legislation to improve labour relations.

PSAC held a press conference on Friday, October 25, speaking out against the changes to labour law contained in the Budget Implementation Act. We received extensive media coverage, including the following articles:

Bill C-4 takes away the democratic rights of federal public sector employees and seriously undermines the health and safety protections in the Canada Labour Code covering workers under federal jurisdiction.The proposed amendments to federal labour laws do not modernize the public sector. Rather, they are regressive and set back rights 30 years.The following is a synopsis of PSAC’s concerns with the bill.

(Ottawa) October 25, 2013 – The Public Service Alliance of Canada called today on the Conservative government to withdraw changes to federal labour legislation from the Budget Implementation Act. What is needed instead is a new and genuinely modern labour law modeled on labour legislation that already exists for other workers across Canada, such as the Canada Labour Code.

Pressure from bargaining agents and our members has paid off. Treasury Board President Tony Clement has confirmed in an Oct. 15 meeting with PSAC National President Robyn Benson that “pay modernization” in the federal public service and the implementation of “pay in arrears” will take place with no impact on PSAC members' pay – no member will experience a claw back.The employer had proposed a transition that would have resulted in a loss of 4% off member’s biweekly paycheques in 2014.