February 28, 2012
Your TC Bargaining Team continued to make slow progress toward a new collective agreement in the latest round of negotiations with Treasury Board.
In a bargaining session that lasted from February 20th through February 24th, 2012, we signed off on more language and, in an effort to break the logjam on economic discussions, tabled a new wage proposal with Treasury Board.
Economic Proposals
- Your Team has withdrawn the demand for a market adjustment of 13.5 per cent contained in our economic package tabled on December 15, 2011.
- We maintained the proposal for wage increases of 3 per cent in each year of a three-year deal.
- We offered a new proposal for an additional increment of 4 per cent to be added to the top of all classifications, effective April 1, 2013.
- We also proposed that the bottom increment be removed from all classifications at the same time.
- All other proposals for allowances in the original economic package remain on the table.
Budget Freeze to Lift
When the Harper government froze budgets for the fiscal years 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, it indicated that core funding for wages would resume in fiscal 2013. Several collective agreements have now been negotiated that provide for additional increases in 2013. For example, in the PA Collective Agreement, an additional increment for WPs will come into effect on April 13 2013. In negotiations with PIPSC, Land Surveyors are also slated to receive an additional increment in 2013.
Successive pay studies have shown that wages of TC members have fallen substantially behind their comparators, and the 13.5 per cent market adjustment was very defensible. Therefore your Bargaining Team feels that our amended proposal of an additional increment is more than reasonable. It delays additional increases until the second-last year of a new agreement and it would ensure a fair increase for all members of the bargaining unit, whereas proposed Appendix P allowances are limited to specific positions where your Bargaining Team was able to identify recruitment and retention issues.
Appendix P
The Employer did not respond to our proposals for terminable allowances under Appendix P, which were tabled in early February. Treasury Board has committed to providing us with a complete response at our next bargaining session.
Gender Identity and Expression
Your Bargaining Team is very pleased to report that we have signed off on new language under Article 19 – No Discrimination to include gender identity and expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination. This is an historic first.
Bill C-389, legislation championed by former NDP MP Bill Siksay, which would have added gender identity and expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act, was passed in the last Parliament but did not make it through the Senate before the election last May.
PSAC has negotiated this language in many collective agreements, but this is the first agreement in the federal public service to include this language.
Leave for Union Business
We have signed off on new language in Article 14 – Leave With or Without Pay for Alliance Business, to allow leave without pay for an employee who is elected to a full-time position in PSAC.
Other Issues
All of the other outstanding issues between the parties were discussed, including critical language on Hours of Work (rest periods, shift scheduling, etc.) and acting pay.
Next bargaining session
Your Bargaining Team is looking forward to making more progress when bargaining resumes on March 5 – 8, 2012.
Questions ?
tc-bargaining-negociations@psac-afpc.com
tc-bargaining-negociations@psac-afpc.com
