September 18, 2008
AS Compensation Advisor update: employer fails to respond to Committee report before deadline
The federal government has failed to respond to a House of Commons Committee report on the problems facing Compensation Advisors prior to the deadline set by the Committee.
On May 1, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) released a report on the Compensation Community, entitled “The Right Pay for Valuable Employees.”
The report strongly reinforced what the PSAC and its members have been saying for several years: urgent action is needed on pay and classification for Compensation Advisors if the federal government is going to solve recurring problems in paying its employees on time and accurately.
There are more than 1,500 Compensation and Benefits Advisors across the federal government, providing compensation services to hundreds of thousands of federal employees. Mostly classified as AS-2s, they work for Treasury Board departments and are members of the PA bargaining unit.
The Committee requested that the government respond to the recommendations within 120 days, which would have been August 29. That date passed without a response from the employer. With the federal election call, all business of the previous House dies, as does the obligation of the employer to formally respond to the report. Once the election is over and Parliament is recalled either later this fall or early in 2009, a new Government Operations Committee will be appointed. It remains to be seen whether the new Committee will pick up where the old one left off. The PSAC and Compensation Advisors will certainly push for this.
In the meantime, the election call does not stop the fact that an all party committee of the House of Commons unanimously called upon the government to improve the pay, classification and working conditions of the Compensation Advisors.
Next steps for action by Compensation Advisors
There are several ways Compensation Advisors can get involved to support the proposals made by the House of Commons Committee and the proposals that the PSAC has made at the PA bargaining table:
- Download the OGGO report and use it to talk to candidates in your riding for MPs about the problems facing the Compensation Community.
- Ask candidates if they’ll support the recommendations made by the Committee.
- Get involved in helping elect candidates who support quality public services.
- Download the PSAC Bargaining Demand and talk to other PSAC members about why we’re seeking this at the table.
- Call your Local, your Component, or your PSAC Regional Office to get involved in the mobilization work we’re doing around this round of bargaining.
- Keep up to date by visiting the PSAC web page to keep yourself and other members informed about the collective bargaining progress.
Date Modified : 2010/01/29
