March 11, 2008
Technical Services Bargaining Team Update
Attention to all members of the DD, EG, GT, PI, PY and TI pay groups.
Your TC Bargaining Team was in Ottawa from February 26 to 29 and continued negotiations with Treasury board.
As in earlier rounds, bargaining is being coordinated between the Treasury Board Tables, with each Table taking the lead on certain issues. So this session, our Table discussed the following issues:
- Article 20 – Harassment;
- Article 28 – Overtime;
- Article 29 – Call-back Pay;
- Article 30 – Standby;
- Article 31 – Reporting Pay;
- Article 34 – Traveling Time/Captive Time;
- Article 41 – Injury-on-duty Leave;
- Article 43 – Maternity Related Reassignment;
- Article 65 – Pay Administration (Acting Pay & Salary Protection);
- New Article – Pre-retirement Transition Leave;
- New Article 39.09 – Sick LWOP provision for extended absence.
The Employer responded to a number of items that we had tabled during the last session, and said NO to the following:
- Improved Call-back for workers at Percy Moore and Norway House Hospitals;
- Article 39.09 – Sick LWOP provision for an extended absence;
- Training to keep TI certification up-to-date (According to Treasury Board, the existing Employer-provided-training is sufficient)
- Inclusion of Ammo Techs in the Dangerous Goods Article (Treasury Board stated that DND informed them that the Ammo Techs are not accountable if something goes wrong, because they only handle the material and they are not certified under the TDG Act.)
- App K – Improvements to Diving Duty Allowance;
- Article 43 – Improvements to Maternity Related Reassignment;
- A new proposal to include on Pre-Retirement Transition Leave in the Collective Agreement.
We entered into a lengthy exchange of proposals and counterproposals but at the end of the week, the Employer's insistence on including clawbacks as part of the deal was unacceptable to your Bargaining Team.
The Employer has made it clear that their main indicator for changes to the Collective Agreements is the quantity of grievances received on a particular issue, i.e. No grievances = No problems and therefore no changes are required.
The Employer also stated that they are not prepared to address monetary proposals until all non-monetary proposals have been dealt with.
Your Team continues to be disappointed that the Employer is not entering into the spirit of negotiations. When the Employer was challenged as to whether or not they cared to improve the working conditions and moral of their employees, they would not respond.
Your TC team anticipates being back the week of April 28th, 2008, at which time we expect to review the results of the Pay Study. Stayed tuned for further updates.
Your TC Team:
Carol Casey – EG – Prairie Region
Daniel Dubé – EG – Quebec Region
Peter Holland – GT – Atlantic Region
Garry Larouche – TI – Ontario Region
Darrell-Lee McKenzie – EG – BC Region
Phil Robinson – TI – BC Region
Glen Whalley – EG – National Capital Region
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Date Modified : 2008/11/18
Public Service Alliance of Canada | 233, Gilmour Street, Ottawa, ONTARIO CANADA, K2P 0P1, Tel.: 1 888 604-7722 (PSAC)