October 22, 2013
We Have an Agreement
Tentative FB Agreement Reached with Treasury Board
After two years and eight months of negotiations, four final offers, petition drives,
picketing, a final offer forced vote thrown out by court challenge, the filing of unfair
labour practice complaints and a final, round-the-clock 28-hour bargaining session,
our Bargaining Team reached an agreement with Treasury Board/CBSA at 11:00 am
the morning of Tuesday October 22. Our FB Bargaining Team unanimously
recommends ratification of our new agreement.
HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
The Tentative Agreement signed Tuesday morning contains significant
improvements to our collective agreement, a testament to the fortitude and
solidarity of PSAC/CIU membership at CBSA.
Our Three-Year Agreement Includes:
• Annual Increases for all employees of:
– 1.75% June 21, 2011
– 1.5% June 21, 2012
– 2.0 % June 21, 2013
• As part of the settlement, all uniformed officers (including Inland Enforcement,
Criminal Investigations and Regional Intelligence Officers) will receive an
annual allowance of one-thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars beginning
June 21, 2013, on top of the negotiated annual wage increases.
• All non-uniformed officers are to receive an annual allowance of onethousand,
two hundred and fifty dollars on top of the negotiated annual
increases beginning June 21, 2013, plus a lump-sum one-time payment of
five-hundred dollars at the date of signing.
• This means that all employees in the FB bargaining unit shall receive
one-thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars in 2013, on top of annual
wage increases.
• Seniority shall now be recognized for all shift workers, working under both
VSSA and non-VSSA schedules.
• Seniority shall now be recognized for all workers – both shift and non-shift
worker – for the purposes of vacation scheduling.
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• Protections in the context of the arming initiative, including an obligation on
the part of the employer to make every reasonable effort to find placement
opportunity for employees not hired with firearms as a condition of
employment that are unsuccessful on firearm certification, as well as new
joint union-management committees to discuss firearm participant selection
and placement.
• Bereavement leave shall now be seven consecutive days instead of five.
• Employees may now use a maximum of 7.5 hours of Family-Related
Responsibility Leave for school functions, legal appointments and emergency
child care.
• Consistent with all other Treasury Board settlements, this tentative agreement
includes the deletion of the severance provisions for employees who quit or
retire. Under the new tentative agreement, severance will still be paid if you
are laid off but would otherwise no longer accumulate. Any monies currently
owing to you under the existing severance provisions would be paid out or
may be banked for future use. Employees shall continue to accumulate
severance until the official signing of the collective agreement. No other
Treasury Board group held out as long as the FB Bargaining team did to
maintain our severance benefit, or to get something in exchange, which
we did.
This agreement is consistent with settlements reached by other federal law
enforcement workers and maintains the wage parity that we achieved in the previous
round of negotiations. It is an agreement that was hard fought and the product of the
solidarity of PSAC/CIU members working at CBSA from coast to coast to coast. In
terms of compensation, scheduling rights and arming protections, this
agreement is dramatically better than the final offer submitted to our team in
the spring and that the government attempted to force a vote on this past
summer.
Our Bargaining Team unanimously recommends ratification of our new
agreement.
For more information about our new contract contact your Branch President, a
member of our Bargaining Team or go to http:www.psac.com. A full explanation of
the new agreement, and a copy of the new language, will be provided at ratification
meetings.