Canada Revenue Agency, Union Reach Tentative Deal, Ending Strike of 35,000 Workers
THERE ARE SIGNS OF RESISTANCE
Courtesy of Barrie 360 and Canadian PressPublished: May 4th, 2023
By Laura Osman in Ottawa
The public-sector union representing Canada Revenue Agency employees struck a tentative deal with the federal government Thursday, ending a strike of 35,000 workers just after the tax season wrapped up.
The announcement of a prospective agreement came in the wee hours of Thursday morning, three days after the government and Public Service Alliance of Canada came to separate deals that ended the walk-out of more than 120,000 other public servants.
CRA employees represented by PSAC’s Union of Taxation Employees were off the job for 15 days in total, during which Monday’s tax-filing deadline came and went.
The union told members to return to work on May 4 by 11:30 a.m. ET at the latest.
In a statement, PSAC said the tentative deal includes wage increases totalling 12.6 per cent compounded over the life of the agreement from 2021-2024, as well as an additional fourth year in the agreement that protects workers from inflation.
The tentative agreement also includes a pensionable $2,500 one-time lump sum payment that represents an additional 3.6 per cent of salary for the average member.
In its own release, the CRA said it and PSAC reached a tentative settlement on telework outside of the collective agreement. It said both agreed to undertake a review of the directive on virtual work arrangements, and to create a panel to advise the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner regarding employee concerns.
The union threatened earlier Wednesday that it would plan to send its members to disrupt a Liberal party convention in Ottawa on Thursday if the employer didn’t table a “fair” deal.
The separate agreements that PSAC negotiated with the government included largely the same terms.
But CRA workers had pushed for even larger wage increases than their colleagues in other parts of the government. Earlier in the negotiations, the tax employees’ union had sought a 20.5 per cent increase over a three-year period.
The bargaining groups’ 155,000 union members are expected to vote on whether to accept the deals in the next few weeks.
There are already signs of resistance.
The group that represents workers at Service Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has called on its members to vote against the deal.
In a letter to its members, the Canada Employment Immigration Union said the tentative deal doesn’t increase wages enough and doesn’t enshrine work-from-home provisions in the collective agreements.
Local executives from across the country agree the bargaining groups should return to the negotiation table, said Crystal Warner, national executive vice-president for the union.
“The response that we’re getting from our members is that they are not satisfied with this contract and they also share our view that they want to vote against it,” she said in an interview Thursday.
PSAC president Chris Aylward said in a statement Thursday that it will be up to the membership to decide what happens next.
“It’s a democratic process and members have the right to vote on their respective agreements,” he said.
If members vote against the deal, that would open the door to another potential strike, though workers would not automatically walk off the job.
Employees returning to work at the Canada Revenue Agency are likely to face a huge backlog of calls, Marc Brière, the president of the union that represents taxation employees, speculated on Wednesday.
“Our call centres were practically closed, except for the essential services,” Brière said at a press conference at PSAC headquarters in Ottawa before the deal was reached.
That means some two million calls went unanswered ahead of the tax filing deadline, he said.
— With files from Nojoud Al Mallees.
Federal Government Touts “Final” Offer To Striking Public Service Union As Fair
MORE THAN 100,000 MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE ALLIANCE OF CANADA WALKED OFF THE JOB APRIL 19
Courtesy of Barrie 360 and Canadian PressPublished: Apr 30th, 2023
Ottawa
The federal government says the contract proposal extended on Friday to the union representing more than 100,000 striking public servants is its final offer.
The Treasury Board issued a statement Saturday that said the offer to striking Public Service Alliance of Canada workers includes a better wage package and solutions to deal with priorities such as telework and seniority, but offered no further details.
“This is a fair, competitive and reasonable final offer, with wage and non-wage improvements, and we believe that employees should have an opportunity to review the details of it,” the government said.
The comments came as the strike affecting thousands of government and Canada Revenue Agency workers dragged into an eleventh day.
More than 100,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada walked off the job April 19 after the union and government failed to reach new contract deals.
The contracts affect 155,000 federal workers in total but the government deemed about 46,000 of them as essential workers who are not taking part in the job action.
The union issued a statement on Friday confirming it had received the government’s offer but declining further comment, saying only that it had resumed negotiations with the Treasury Board and hoped to continue talks over the weekend.
“We hope to continue bargaining this weekend in order to reach a fair deal for our 120,000 federal public service members,” the union said.
The PSAC contracts expired in 2021.
The government’s last published wage offer was to be backdated to 2021, with a 1.5 per cent increase that year, followed by a 4.5 per cent raise in 2022 and another of three per cent in 2023.
The union initially asked for 13.5 per cent over the term and while it says it has adjusted that ask, it has not said what the new request is.
Aside from pay, other issues described by the government as sticking points earlier this week include the flexibility to work remotely, the reduction of the government’s use of outside contractors and the implementation of seniority rules in the event of layoffs.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS TABLED NEW OFFER ON TENTH DAY OF STRIKE, PSAC SAYS
WAGES HAVE BEEN A STUMBLING BLOCK IN THE NEGOTIATIONS
Courtesy of Barrie 360 and Canadian PressPublished: Apr 28th, 2023
By Mia Rabson in Ottawa
The federal government tabled a new contract offer to the Public Service Alliance of Canada Friday, as thousands of federal workers remained on strike for the tenth straight day.
Both the union and a spokeswoman for Treasury Board President Mona Fortier confirmed the offer, which is the first sign of any progress in the talks since the union said things were at a stalemate on Wednesday.
Fortier’s press secretary Monica Granados called it a “comprehensive offer” but provided no further details.
In a written statement the union confirmed receiving the offer as talks resumed Friday.
“We hope to continue bargaining this weekend in order to reach a fair deal,” the statement said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday the government is making “serious offers” in a bid to bring a strike of its largest public-sector union to an end.
More than 100,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada walked off the job April 19 after the union and government failed to reach new contract deals.
The contracts affect 155,000 federal workers in total but the government deemed about 46,000 of them as essential workers who are not taking part in the job action.
The PSAC contracts expired in 2021.
Earlier this week, PSAC national president Chris Aylward said he wanted Trudeau to get directly involved in the negotiations, which he said have hit an impasse because the government hadn’t budged from its latest wage increase offer of nine per cent over three years.
Trudeau, who was in New York City this week for a trade trip, said he is involved.
“I have been directly and intimately involved in the negotiations, in hearing about what discussions are going on,” he said, responding to a question from a reporter at a news conference.
He said he is confident the strike can be concluded with a negotiated deal. The government could end the strike with back-to-work legislation, but Liberal ministers have refused to even entertain a question about using such a tool.
“I have deep faith in collective bargaining as a process,” Trudeau said. “We know that our negotiators are putting forward serious offers.”
The government’s last published wage offer was to be backdated to 2021, with a 1.5 per cent increase that year, followed by 4.5 per cent raise in 2022 and another of three per cent in 2023.
Fortier has repeatedly said that is the wage offer recommended by the Public Interest Commission, a panel appointed by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board last year to help the two sides reach an agreement.
It is not clear if today’s offer included a bigger wage increase.
The union initially asked for 13.5 per cent over the same time frame and while it says it has adjusted that ask, it has not said what the new request is.
In a tweet Friday morning, PSAC said it wants a raise that keeps up with inflation and insists the public sector hasn’t received a raise in line with inflation in more than 15 years.
“Thanks to inflation rising by 11 per cent since 2021, federal public service workers’ wages are worth the same as they were in 2007,” the Twitter statement said.
Early Friday, picket lines were a little more sparse in downtown Ottawa than they had been earlier in the week, when union members flooded the Parliamentary Precinct in a bid to ramp up the direct impact of the strike.
A handful of workers in PSAC strike pinneys remained outside the doors of many federal office buildings, limiting entry to one person every five minutes.
But a larger gathering took place on one of the bridges across the Ottawa River to Gatineau, Que., where PSAC members also marked the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job.
“We are taking the bridge,” chanted a large group of picketing workers as they marched across it.
Aside from pay, other issues described by the government as sticking points earlier this week include the flexibility to work remotely, the reduction of the government’s use of outside contractors and the implementation of seniority rules in the event of layoffs.
A majority of the PSAC workers were directed to work from home in March 2020 when COVID-19 began, and only a limited number had returned to in-person work in the years since. In December, Fortier issued a new directive requiring all workers to be in the office at least two days a week, but the government’s unions pushed back, calling the directive unfair.
They want a policy on remote work included in their contracts.
Fortier said in an open letter earlier this week that she was offering to do a joint review of the telework policy with the unions.
Jennifer Carr, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada union, said that is a good start but it’s not good enough.
“We need a binding commitment in a collective agreement, because we have seen too many instances where the employer has abandoned its promises or ignored the process after signing a memorandum of understanding with us,” she said.
Carr said the government’s consultation on the return-to-office directive was “abysmal” and didn’t listen to the government’s own advisers.
As the strike continues, Canadians are facing a wide range of federal service disruptions, including an inability to process immigration and passport applications.
About 35,000 of the affected workers are employed at the Canada Revenue Agency which has limited the access Canadians have to get help filing their taxes ahead of the deadline on May 1.
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