RCMP category of employee project

RCMP Public Service Employees FED UP!

Last June, RCMP management announced their decision on the Category of Employees (COE) Project. As a result, CM positions will be converted to PSE status. This touched off a campaign by those under the Staff Relations Representative Program to overturn this decision.

Since then, the USGE-PSAC has taken the high road and turned the other cheek in the face of inaccurate and inflammatory comments against public service employees. While we believe the Staff Relations Representative Program is divisive and counter-productive, until now we have not questioned their right to express their views or represent civilian members. But that ‘right' has limits – and the limits have been overstepped.

Well, enough is enough. The USGE-PSAC has taken this matter up with the highest levels of RCMP management. The employer has a legal obligation to provide a harassment-free workplace to all its employees.

What we cannot accept – and will not accept – are the continuing insinuations that only Regular and Civilian Members within the RCMP are responsible for the safety and security of the Canadian public. These innuendos contribute to a poisonous work environment that all of us will have to deal with, now and in the future.

Another very real concern is the spreading of inaccurate and misleading information. The most recent example is the suggestion that the safety and security of Canadians would be threatened if civilian members are converted to public service employees. The implication is that USGE-PSAC members care less about the public safety and security. This is as insulting as it is inaccurate.

USGE-PSAC members feel these actions go beyond the expression of opinion. They are being viewed as personal attacks against the integrity and credibility of public service employees. These feelings are being expressed in many RCMP workplaces. USGE-PSAC members are frustrated, hurt and, most of all, fed up.

Across the country, PSEs work alongside Regular and Civilian Members on the front lines. USGE-PSAC members deal face-to-face with members of the public on a daily basis, sometimes in very hostile situations. USGE-PSAC members are second to none when it comes to concern for the public's safety and security.

The great majority of PSEs – including all detachment clerks – are designated as “essential workers,” required by law to remain at work in the event of a strike. Both sides agree on a level of service that will not impair the RCMP's operational efficiency.

Furthermore, the USGE-PSAC would never allow strike action to jeopardize public safety and security. Proof of that was shown in the PSAC's decision to cease all strike action and return to work on September 11, 2001.

In fact, if anything shows a disregard for the public's safety and security, it is the conscious effort by some to divide RCMP employees and poison the workplace through harassment and misinformation.