Updates

In its budget, the government acknowledged it must work with the federal public sector unions to address the emotional and financial impacts of Phoenix. Since then, the talks concerning damages have been advancing. The compensation being sought is for the stress, the time spent dealing with, and the catastrophic losses caused by Phoenix pay problems.

The wage dispute between the CRA and the PSAC-UTE has finally been put to an end following a Bindfing Conciliation Board decision reached March 14, 2018.

On January 31, 2018 our PSAC/UTE Bargaining Team presented our case before the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board on the wage dispute with the CRA for wage increases for the years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.

In response to pressure from PSAC, the federal government has finally agreed to halt recoveries of overpayments, emergency salary advances (ESA) and priority payments until employees’ pay files have been cleared of all outstanding transactions. This means employees will receive any and all funds they are owed before they must reimburse the employer for any overpayments or emergency pay. 

After months of stalling by the employer, a date has finally been set to begin arbitration for the PSAC dental plan.  Our union and the employer will appear in front of an arbitrator on June 19, 2018. At that time, PSAC will present our arguments for improving the plan.

While improvements are long overdue for members covered by the dental plan, the employer has not agreed to a single change. They have said no to:

The Public Service Alliance of Canada supports the government’s intention to improve harassment complaint procedures, protect complainant confidentiality and – after 25 years – finally extend basic health and safety protections to staff of the House of Commons, Senate, Library, and Parliament as a whole, including over 600 PSAC members.

While much of this bill is positive, PSAC has recommendations for amendments which we have presented to Parliament. Our recommendations aim to ensure that legislation to improve workplace safety also takes into account the specific ways that workers – including members of equity seeking groups, such as racialized and indigenous women – experience harassment and violence and how their particular needs might be addressed in a complaint and reporting process.