Updates

The PSAC-UTE bargaining team is now in the process of reaching out to the mediator to set dates for the next bargaining session.

The Board also declared that the creation of a Public Interest Commision will be delayed in order to give the parties an opportunity to return to the bargaining table with the assistance of the mediator.

The union is calling on the government to remedy the situation by:

• Paying damages to all public service workers for the great financial and emotional hardship they have endured
• Providing the additional staffing and training needed to:
  • assist members at the Client Contact Centre and the Public Service Pay Centre;
  • reduce Phoenix cases by ensuring HR data is entered on time;
  • eliminate the backlog of Phoenix cases, including implementing collective agreements and delivering retroactive pay
• Delivering a clear and accountable timeline to stabilize Phoenix, eliminate the backlog, and transition to a new pay system

Key findings:

• 68% (110,000) had their pay directly impacted – 18,000 to a “very large extent”
• 65% (70,500) of workers say pay problems have not been resolved
• 79% of respondents experienced stress because of Phoenix pay problems. Just over 29,000 people reported that they experienced a “very large extent” of stress as a result of Phoenix.
• 22% (35,500) workers delay advancing their careers because of Phoenix (e.g., deployment, promotion, secondment, assignment, acting assignment) because they were concerned about the pay problems that might ensue if they did
• 44% (50,000) said their departments did not help them enough to deal with Phoenix problems
• 63% (68,624) of workers are still unhappy with the response from the pay centre
• Tens of thousands of workers’ experience multiple pay problems

We are hopeful that this motion will result in increased attention being paid to the very serious issue of precarious work, both within the federal government and in federally regulated workplaces across the country.

However, the motion calls for study and definition, but not for action.

Two important gains were awarded by the Board:

1. New language in Article 2 (Definitions) requiring the employer to provide, in a letter to employees, an explanation for changes to an employee’s Average Work Week (AWW); and
2. In addition to the 1.25% annual economic increase for the four year collective agreement, there is now a 4% market adjustment applicable to all rates of pay, effective December 1, 2016, and applied prior to the 1.25% economic increase for that year.