Unions, workers share mixed feelings about latest details of PSAC agreements

While the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has released new details of its tentative agreements with the federal government, public servants and component union leaders representing workers across the four bargaining units that were recently on strike are still unsure whether their members will vote to ratify the deals.

Over the weekend, PSAC issued six statements on its website, offering both a general overview of the agreements for Canada Revenue Agency and Treasury Board workers, as well as summaries of the specific agreements for workers in the PSAC-UTE (Union of Taxation Employees), Education and Library Science (EB), Technical Services (TC), Operational Services (SV) and Program and Administrative Services (PA) groups.

The agreements the union reached earlier this month that sent more than 155,000 federal public servants back to work after more than 10 days of striking include a 12.6 per cent wage increase as well as protections against contracting out and increased shift premiums for some workers. New language around remote work was also introduced in a separate letter of intent.

While PSAC said it is still preparing ratification kits containing the full details of the new agreements to be shared in the coming days, it said that the deal will provide workers with $23,000 more, on average, over the four years of the agreement. PSAC said that figure results from the culmination of a $2,500 lump-sum payment and yearly salary increases, based on the average member’s salary of $68,000 for CRA workers and $67,305 for Treasury Board workers.

PSAC said that for members working in the four bargaining groups under Treasury Board, the wage increase that was secured in the deal would add an average of $8,473 to their base salary by 2024. For CRA workers, that number reaches $8,559.

Going into negotiations, PSAC was seeking 13.5 per cent over three years for Treasury Board workers and 20.5 per cent plus a one-time wage adjustment of nine per cent over the same time period for CRA members.

On social media, federal public servants have expressed their different reactions to the deal. While some are content with the agreement, others think a better deal could have been reached.

Mathieu Larocque, a communications manager in the PA group, said that while he acknowledges the agreement is not “the best deal ever” and finds the additional details of the contract to be underwhelming, he’s still satisfied with it.

“The union made members wait a week for a pinch of new information and the new information was targeted at a very small portion of the group,” Larocque said. “Although my expectations were low on actual new gains, I did expect some sort of ‘win’ once the details went out. I do still plan in ratifying this deal as I feel it’s the best deal we would be able to get, and is fair for both the employees and employer.”

Larocque said he has no problem with the current hybrid work model, noting that being able to work from home two or three days a week is pretty good. He added that he understands why the government decided to leave remote work out of the collective agreement as it could lead to it receiving an overwhelming number of grievances.

“I would have taken maybe a higher wage if it was offered, but it’s definitely not something I would fight harder for because I do think it’s still fair,” Larocque said. “I think there’s a logical sense that, for most, this will be a good deal, it’s likely the best deal and they can look forward to the next collective agreement.”

Moving forward, Larocque said he believes PSAC needs to better communicate with its members, and understand and negotiate its few key demands instead of asking for “everything and the kitchen sink.”

Crystal Warner, the national executive vice-president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU), which represents 36,000 of the nearly 100,000 members of PSAC’s PA group and has launched a campaign asking members to vote “no” to the deal, said that even with the new details, the agreement is still not enough.

Warner said the average salary mentioned by PSAC is higher than what CEIU members make, given that CEIU is the most racially diverse union in the federal public sector and among the lowest paid, with 78 per cent of the component’s members being women.

“The amounts released are not reflective of the 36,000 members at CEIU; that number would be a lower number,” Warner said.

Warner said some of the gains that were outlined in the latest iteration of the agreements, including reimbursements for the costs of medical certificates while on sick leave and the expansion of the scope for bereavement leave to include aunts and uncles, were “great,” but wages remain a top issue for CEIU.

She said the union’s membership is also unhappy with the decisions around remote work, with CEIU hoping to see language enshrined in the collective agreement. PSAC said on the weekend the new contracts provide the “strongest remote work protections in the federal public service.”

Warner said she hopes to see the vote fail in order for negotiations to resume, adding that she’s not concerned about the possibility of back-to-work legislation being introduced.

“I think there would be some serious political ramifications for the parties if they were to take that direction and I think the whole labor movement would be with us,” she said.

Unit-specific gains outlined in the latest statements range from allowances for various positions, increased premium rates, and more paid holidays for some workers.

June Winger, national president of the Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE), whose members are spread out across the four Treasury Board bargaining units who were recently on strike, said last week that members were waiting to see the final agreements before making a decision about how to vote, indicating that she was confident that if no additional funds were included, they would vote no.

She said Tuesday her workers are still “waiting with bated breath” to see the deals before making a decision, noting that while there were additional allowances announced over the weekend, the component hopes to see more funds allotted to workers in the final agreements.

“We have some significant wage disparity when we do the total compensation comparators between the Treasury Board employees and the private sector, and so we want to try to minimize that to the best that we can,” Winger said, adding that the more competitive the government can make their wages, the better they’ll be able to address issues of recruitment and retention.