November 9, 2007

PSAC Bargaining Units with Treasury Board (PA, SV, TC, EB, FB)

PA negotiations continue
Key demands discussed

Your PSAC Program and Administrative Services (PA) bargaining team met Treasury Board for another four days, starting October 30.  The two teams met every day and exchanged information in a respectful atmosphere.

During our meetings, the Canada Public Service Agency made a presentation on bilingual positions in the federal public sector.  Among other things, the Agency is responsible for monitoring the implementation of Official Languages policies.  The presentation was a response to the PA unit’s demand on language training.  We have submitted a Memorandum of Understanding to the employer with suggested guidelines for the fair implementation of language training.  Our problem is not with the policy but we want to ensure that is being applied fairly and that there is more equal access to the training.

Service Canada representatives also appeared with a presentation on hours of work.  This is the start of what will likely be a long discussion on this issue.  Your team is taking a strong position against the employer’s demands for concessions in hours of work. 

Your team also made presentations, one on the demand for transit passes and one on our demand for improvements to severance pay.  At this time, severance pay is capped at 30 years of service.  Your team pointed out that our members’ loyalty to the public they serve does not end at 30 years.  Severance pay was created to recognize long service and a result should not be capped at an arbitrary number of years.  In fact, one member of your team has put well over 30 years of service.  The teams have also discussed maternity and parental leave provisions.

Your team is continuing to work hard together to push through what appears to be a reluctance on the part of the employer to reach a conclusion on any of the issues at the table.

Next bargaining sessions

Dates originally scheduled for December have been postponed due to delays with the negotiation of the Essential Services Agreements and the completion of some compensation studies.  PSAC has had to resort to filing complaints with the Public Service Labour Relations Board in an attempt to get the information it needs from the departments to negotiate the ESAs.

We will be back at the table in the new year but actual meeting dates have yet to be confirmed.  This information will be posted on the psac web site as soon as it is available. 

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