Updates

The Canadian government’s theme for Black History Month 2020 is ‘Canadians of African Descent: Going Forward, Guided by the Past.’ This theme is inspired by the United Nations declaration that 2015-2024 would be deemed the International Decade of People of African Descent, which has its own theme and focus: “People of African descent: Recognition, Justice and Development”.

The government wants to reduce call back pay by giving itself the right to request that call back assignments be performed at home. In such situations, employees would no longer earn a minimum of three hours at the overtime rate of pay for each call back and instead be paid only for one hour at straight time or actual hours at time and a half, whichever is the greater.  

PSAC rejects this proposal as it will create the expectation that problems in the workplace—for instance, those involving malfunctioning vessels, heating plants, building or freezer alarms, or water treatment systems—be addressed remotely. This would be dangerous and allow the government to forgo ‘eyes on the ground’ in high-risk situations in exchange for a shortsighted reduction in wage costs. 

In order to select the six key issues, PSAC-UPCE reviewed members’ bargaining input, outstanding issues from the last round, audited the collective agreement, and reviewed emerging issues from the implementation of the collective agreement over the past couple of years.

During bargaining sessions held from January 27 to 29, the following issues were tabled by the union, and are currently the subject of discussions with Canada Post:

Parks Canada bargaining team members will head to their Public Interest Commission (PIC) hearings January 27, 28 and 30 in Ottawa. 

Together as FBs, we’ve achieved incredible victories over the years. PSAC is the largest union in the federal public service, and one of the largest public sector unions in the country.  No other union has more experience in bargaining and representation within the federal public service than PSAC and CIU. 

• We successfully won the right for Border Services Officers to be armed in 2006.
• Since 2007, PSAC-CIU successfully negotiated a 48% increase in compensation for frontline BSO, including a 17.5% raise in 2018.
• We won significant new rights for shift workers, including protections in the context of VSSA negotiations and seniority rights.

What is a Public Interest Commission? 

Under the law that governs contract negotiations in the federal public service, once impasse is reached at the bargaining table, a PIC is established to help the parties reach an agreement. The PIC is a panel of three people – a chairperson appointed by the Labour Board and nominees appointed by the union and management.