October update
Oct 12, 2011
October 2011
Parties in Dispute over PensionCommitment Proposal
Bargaining Team continues to demand parity with other federalenforcement workers.
Our FB bargaining team met with Treasury Board and CBSA representatives inOttawa the week of October 3rd to continue negotiations for a new contract. Talksover the course of the four days focussed on our proposals concerning pensionreform, VSSA and non-VSSA scheduling, seniority rights and severance.With respect to pension reform, we re-iterated to management that we want acommitment in this round of bargaining from the CBSA and Treasury Board that bothsupport a “twenty-five and out” retirement plan for all members of the FB bargainingunit. In negotiations management indicated that they do not have any interest inpursuing such an initiative, and that because only Parliament can change pensionlegislation they refuse to address the issue. We reiterated our position that there isnothing in the law that precludes CBSA/Treasury Board from committing to support achange in legislation, one that would provide for FB workers to be subject to thesame retirement regime as other enforcement workers in the public service.In addition, we had considerable discussion about scheduling, and seniority rightsfor both VSSA and non-VSSA workers, both in the context of hours of work andvacation scheduling. On the last day of negotiations, management proposed to endall accrual of severance for the purposes of voluntary termination. We indicated thatwe have no interest in ending severance accrual for workers in the FB bargainingunit.We meet again the week of November 15th. We’ll be sure to update as thingsprogress. If you have any questions speak with a member of our team, a member ofyour Branch Executive, or go to the PSAC website at http://www.psac.com for a copy ofour demands.
PSAC Members at CBSAUnited for a Fair Workplace
http://ciuns.org/images/uploads/OCT_07_2011-e_-_FB_Octobre_2011_Update.pdf