Table 2

A Memorandum of Understanding resolves important issues at Table 2

Following the signing of the Table 2 collective agreement in March, the PSAC became aware of a number of issues which required interpretation, and some errors that needed correction. We raised these issues with the Employer and agreed to negotiate a number of amendments to the collective agreement to clarify the intent. While our talks proceeded slowly, we are pleased to announce that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on June 7, 2005, that will amend the collective agreement.

Highlights of the changes are as follows:

Firefighters

There were a number of questions about the Table 2 agreement and its application to those FR who work an average 42 hours per week. The signed agreement recognized the 42 hours work week in the Family-Related Article, granting them 42 hours of FRR per year, but it did not properly recognize it in several other articles. Consequently, we have agreed to amend the collective agreement so that is it spelled out clearly that that FRs who work 42 hours of week will:

- be entitled to 42 hours of the one-time vacation leave that replaces marriage leave

- be entitled to 8.4 hours of personal leave and 8.4 hours of volunteer leave per year.       

Shift and Weekend Premiums

Since the signing of the new collective agreement, the Employer has been telling members that the new definition of "shift" in Article 25 (Hours of Work) means that they will be losing their shift and weekend premiums. Although we knew that some members would lose their shift premiums as a result of the new definition, a fact that was made clear in the Table 2 ratification kit, we had never agreed that members would be losing weekend premiums. In the MOU we have therefore agreed to amend the collective agreement to ensure that employees who work on the weekend will receive the weekend premium of $2.00 per hour worked, including overtime hours. This is an important clarification that restores the weekend premiums for hundreds of members who are scheduled to work weekends, such as GS-FOS (Food Service) workers.

          Note that the weekend premium will not be paid to employees whose regular hours of work are only scheduled Monday-Friday who are only working  overtime on a weekend. (The clause also still does not apply to FR, LI and SC groups)

Vacation Leave Carry-over

Because the agreement was signed on March 22, 2005, the clause which starts the pay out of unused vacation leave would have kicked in on March 31, 2005. This would have meant automatic liquidation of large amounts of vacation leave, since employees had only eight days to use the leave. We are therefore amending the agreement so that clause 35.11 does not take effect until April 1, 2005. This means that no payouts of unused leave will be made until the end of the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Therefore, Table 2 members with vacation leave banks exceeding 280 hours have until March 31, 2006 to take some leave, if they wish to avoid being paid out their unused credits. Clause 35.11 requires that a minimum of 80 hours be cashed out each year until the leave bank is below 280 hours (7 weeks for most Table 2 members).

The full text of the MOU is available for viewing in PDF format here.  Now that the MOU has been signed we expect that the complete Table 2 collective agreement will shortly be posted on the Treasury Board web site. The collective agreement will be printed with the changes incorporated.