Sick Leave Telephone Town-Hall recording
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
PSAC Ontario held a province-wide telephone town-hall on April 8, 2014 at 7pm.
Our call reached over 4,000 members who were able to take part in our live and interactive call on sick leave and bargaining in the federal public service.
For members who were not able to join the call, you can listen to a recording online here: http://youtu.be/ZhZEWie9cwM?t=1s
Rest assured that we will continue to discuss this important topic and are in the process of finalizing regional meetings on sick leave and bargaining that will take place over the next few months.
Please visit www.psac.com/ontario in the coming weeks to find out more information on when the meetings will take place in your area.
Minutes from AGM – Feb 20/14
CEIU LOCAL 581 – ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Thursday, February 20, 1014
457 RICHMOND ST, ORANGE BOARDROOM
LONDON, ON
4:30PM (Approx) TO 6:00pm (Approx)
ATTENDANCE:
EXECUTIVE: Sara Johnson Vleuten – PRESIDENT, Raquel Ireland-Staats – VP CLUSTER OFFICES, Sandy Snider-Treasurer, Nancy York-Chief Steward, Amy Sussex – SECRETARY, Nathan Haley – VP CIC
GUESTS: Todd Woytiuk-PSAC
CALL TO ORDER – ESTABLISH QUORUM
Meeting was called to order at 4:35pm and Sara established quorum.
CALL FOR ADDITIONAL AGENDA ITEMS
Sara called for additional items to agenda – no amendments made
APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES (AGM February 12, 2013 see ATTACHED)
Motion to accept minutes by Katherine Johnston
Seconded by Donna Wells Motion carried
TREASURERS REPORT (ATTACHED)
Financial statement for 2013 handed out to floor to peruse. Local 581 financial books (ledgers) were audited by a member in good standing and were found in good order.
All in favour to adopt financial statement. No one opposed.
Motion carried.
2014 Budget handed out to the floor. It was brought up to the membership that the local no longer has internet fee but we have a website and pay a fee for that. It was reminded to the membership to sign up on the website to receive emails. This way they won’t be receiving duplicate emails.
Sandy brought up money that is in the GIC. Prior to current one coming due July 2014, we have options for what to do with it. It was suggested by the financial planner at TD to split up the current GIC. He mentioned that we could have $5000 at different maturity levels in a guaranteed GIC and get more income off of it and don’t want to have a loss.
Question brought out to the floor for all imposed for diversify GIC. Majority in favour. Asked if anyone opposed. No one opposed.
The local executive will look into splitting up the GIC’s.
It was brought out to the floor to increase the honorarium for Chief Steward as they do a lot of work, attend all the meetings, go to conferences, handle grievances for all offices.
All on floor agreed to increase the honorarium for Chief Steward.
Motion Carried.
COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORT
Sara read highlights from the Health and Safety Report prepared by Erin Shelby. She said that there were 11 incidnets last year. There is no fluctuation compared to previous years. The number of hazards has decreased. Health and Safety members were re-certified in CPR. Violence in the workplace training they are hoping it is coming soon and continues to be an outstanding agenda item. The file bays on the 2nd floor were assessed. New stools were bought. Working alone policy has been looked into as well. Erin attended the EAP seminar and a reminder to staff that it is available to them. Erin has re-signed as CO Chair of the committee and Barb Derbyshire has accepted the position.
PRESIDENTS REPORT
Sara discussed how the Executive is new this year and the satellite and CIC VP’s are not but the rest is. She said that we are learning and trying to help as best we can. She said that we have taken TUB training and there is more training coming up. She mentioned that we did local development training with Lynn at the Regional PSAC office. She mentioned that Sara and Amy went to the we are All Affected campaign in May 2013. She thanked everyone for coming to the meet and greet as we had great attendance. She encouraged everyone to participate as we are all part of the union. Sara attended the Women’s Conference and Nancy & Jen attended the Bargaining Conference. Sara mentioned that the local Executive will be attending a JLP session with management. The session is a Union Management Consultation. The union executive currently meets with management every 3 months. The purpose of this training is to facilitate relationships and work together with management to achieve a good relationship. She thanked everyone for their patience and support.
Chief Steward Report
Nancy said that she attended Collective Bargaining the past month and that we need everyone’s support now more than ever. She said that she will be attending a Duty to Accommodate course in the upcoming weeks. She thanked everyone for coming.
Guest Speaker
Todd discussed the bargaining conferences and how at the conferences demands are decided. He mentioned how fortunate it is that Nancy was able to attend. He discussed the upcoming budget and how the current government is waiting to put a 0% increase in wages in the contract. He discussed how all 17 unions are joining together to fight the current government. This is the first time this has every happened. He discussed how there are 2 years left in the current contract of the Federal Government. He said that they are attacking the public servants because we are easy targets. He said that if we were to write anything to a newspaper we would have to do it as a citizen to the paper and not as a public servant.
He said that the issue is sick time that the government is wanting to amend. He said that the current government feels that it is broken and it needs to be fixed. He discussed how the current sick time works and the proposed changes the government wants to make. He also discussed short term disability and the direction the government would want to go in regards to sick time. He discussed the costs and affect this would have on members.
He discussed how other union members such as Canada Post were affected with their sick time. He discussed how members are forced to use other paid leave or take leave without pay because of the reduction in paid sick leave. He reminded the members in order to collect LTD there is a 13 week waiting period and LTD is typically available for people with serious illness.
He also discussed how both levels of government want to introduce the Right to Work legalisations. He discussed how the most States in the United States have adopted this and the affect it has had on that Country. He discussed the Rand Formula that is currently in place.
He discussed how for years unions have fight for social justice and have been an activist group. He said that unions are here to ensure that justice is heard.
He discussed Bill C4 & C525. He said that in Bill C525 the proposal is that any member that no shows would equal a no vote. The question was asked if mail in or proxy vote would be allowed if this came become law. Todd said that this is still being determined.
The question was asked from the floor what was being done to promote public servants and portray us as positive. Todd discussed the Right to Work video on Youtube and suggested that people watch it. He said to talk to our families and neighbours and discuss that we do good work. CLC has a commercial and uses social media. Todd said that he will send out the Saskatchewan workers video to the members.
Todd reminded everyone that there is the Spring School in April for union education on facilitating and political activism.
REGULATIONS
Sara stated that changes to the local rules need to be made as a regulation and not a bylaw. The local executive was advised of this rule following the submission of last year’s AGM minutes. This change will take effect the date of last AGM February 12 2013 and going forward.
Therefore, the changes that were made last year at the last AGM are now resolutions and not bylaws.
She said that the change to honorarium will go as a regulation as well.
ELECTIONS – VP LONDON, TREASURER, CHIEF STEWARD
Treasurer
Nomination from the floor by Sara Johnson Vleuten – Sandy Snider – Janice Howarth seconded the motion-Sandy accepted and acclaimed Treasurer of Local 581
Chief Steward
Sara nominated Nancy York as Chief Steward. Kelsey Mcmahon seconded this motion. Nancy York accepted and acclaimed Chief Steward of Local 581
CIC Vice President
Sara nominated Nathan Haley as VP for CIC. Sandy Snider seconded this motion. Nathan Haley accepted and acclaimed CIC VP of Local 581
Vice President Satellite Offices
Sara nominated Raquel Ireland Staats as VP of Satellite offices. Patti Perteens seconded this motion. Raquel Ireland Staats accepted and acclaimed VP of Satellite offices of Local 581
Vice President – London Proper
Nomination from the floor by Sara Johnson Vleuten Katherine Johnston –Nancy York seconded this motion. Katherine Johnston accepted and acclaimed Vice President London Proper Local 581
There was a call out to the floor for anyone interested in being a steward. No interest at this time.
Declarations of Office will be signed and witnessed as soon as possible, following this meeting.
Door Prize
Sara drew door prize for London Lighting Basketball Game.
Jelena Stepancev-Kovacevic won the door prize.
ADJOURNMENT
Sara motioned to adjourn the AGM at 6pm
Seconded by Amy Sussex. Motion Carried
Stand up for workers’ rights against Bill C-525-communicate w/ Members of Parliament!!!
Conservative Members of Parliament want to make it harder for people to form a union at work. They’re trying to rush Bill C-525 through the House of Commons as fast as possible.
The Committee studying the Bill is allowing only one day of witnesses. PSAC asks what’s the big rush?
What the Conservatives want to keep quiet is that this Bill is profoundly undemocratic.
Under current federal labour laws in both the public and private sectors, if a majority of employees sign a union card, the union is certified. If there is less than a majority, a vote is held. Right now, the majority rules – a majority of those who cast a vote. But that won’t be the case if Bill C-525 becomes law.
Under Bill C-525, whenever a vote is taken, employees who don’t vote will be counted. They will automatically be counted as having voted against the union – even though they never voted.
You can help by sending an email to the Members of Parliament sitting on the committee that’s examining in the Bill. PSAC President Robyn Benson and REVP forQuebec Magali Picard are appearing before the committee on Tuesday. But they need your help. The Conservatives are trying to rush thisBill through as quickly as possible. Act now!
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Dear Members of Parliament:
I am very concerned about Bill C-525. This Bill is going to create problems where none currently exist. Here are several of them.
Existing federal labour laws in the public and private sectors allow workers to freely decide to unionize or to decertify. Bill C-525 will eliminate the right to automatic certification when a majority of workers have clearly shown their intent by signing union cards. Experience in the provinces where this right has been eliminated shows that workers are vulnerable to employer intimidation before votes can take place.
When labour boards conduct votes, unions can only be certified or decertified if there is majority support among the workers who vote.
With Bill C-525, unions will need a majority of the entire bargaining unit to become certified. In other words, labour boards will have to count all those who did not vote as having voted against the union. In the case of a decertification vote, once again anyone who does not cast a ballot will be counted as voting against the union.
How can you possibly make assumptions about those who do not vote? You have to cast a vote to be counted. As a Member of Parliament, if you chose not to vote on Bill C-525, your non-existent vote will not be counted as either for or against the Bill.
Bill C-525 also proposes changes to the Public Service Labour Relations Act and the Parliamentary Employees Staff Relations Act that will set the requirement to decertify the union at 45%. There is no justification to allow a minority to be able to overturn the will of the majority.
Labour laws should balance the interests of workers, employers and the public. These laws should only be changed with careful consideration and after full consultations with those affected. Bill C-525 was not the result of consultation and is seriously flawed.
I ask you to vote against this Bill at the Committee stage and in the House of Commons.
Conservatives still pushing Bill C-525
The Parliamentary Committee studying Bill C-525 spent just three hours hearing from witnesses and asking them questions about changes to three federal labour laws that will affect over a million workers.
Bill C-525 would change the rules that apply when workers decide whether or not to have a union in their workplace. Under the current laws, if a majority of employees sign union cards their union can be certified. The Bill would impose a forced vote even when a majority has clearly shown they want a union.
During testimony before the Committee, MPs were told repeatedly by all sides that the proposal in the Bill that would count anyone who didn’t vote as having voted against the union was anti-democratic and not in keeping with Canadian standards.
The government MPs on the Committee had to agree that this was not appropriate and amended the Bill in Committee to say that certification and decertification decisions are made on the basis of a majority of those who actually vote.
In spite of this change, Bill C-525 is still a solution in search of a problem.
Witness after witness told the Committee that the best way to change labour law is through extensive consultation with employers and unions. Reaching a consensus on changes contributes to harmonious labour relations; imposing changes does not. Nevertheless the Bill is proceeding.
The real purpose of Bill C-525 is to make it harder for workers to organize. The Chair of the Canada Industrial Labour Relations Board testified that up to now representation votes are called in only 18 to 20 percent of cases under the Canada Labour Code. Insisting that votes be held in all cases will quintuple the Board’s workload requiring more staff and financial resources; all this at a time when budgets are frozen. The more votes, the longer it will take for workers to have their unions certified, the more time the employer will have to interfere.
Bill C-525 will now go back to the House of Commons for further votes and then proceed to the Senate.
PSAC will be continuing to work with MPs and Senators to stop this damaging and unnecessary piece of legislation.
Topics:
February 14, 2014
Reminder AGM tonight! – Sweet Door Prize
Please join us in Orange Boardroom on the first floor @ 457 Richmond St. London.
starts @ 4:30pm Thurs. Feb 20/14
We will have a guest speaker, PSAC regional rep, Todd Woytiuk, refreshments/food…. and we have an awesome door prize to give away – a pair of basketball tickets to see the London Lightning play this weekend!
PSAC members commit to defending workplace rights and benefits
**Our Chief Steward, Nancy York, was in attendance at this conference
PSAC’s Treasury Board Bargaining conference closed on a determined note Sunday, as more than 300 union members committed to defending workplace rights and benefits in the next round of bargaining. Only days after the government introduced a federal budget calling for even more cuts to crucial programs, participants pledged to stand up for public sector workers and the services they provide.
“This is about protecting the hard-won rights of our members over decades,” said Robyn Benson, PSAC National President, in her address to the conference. “And it is about keeping those rights in place not just for us but for the next generations of workers who have yet to join the public service.”
Benson criticized the federal budget for its attacks on public sector sick leave. She also took aim at the Conservatives for rushing Bill C-525 through Parliament, “another outrageous Conservative bill that proposes to put up major roadblocks to the unionization of workers, and that will also allow a minority of workers to get rid of a union even when the majority wants to stick with their union.”
Conference participants heard from PSAC’s experts on the important issues that members will be facing at the bargaining table with Treasury Board, including sick leave and job security. Delegates also heard from Paul Moist, National President of CUPE, Hassan Yussuf, the Secretary Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, Debi Daviau, the President of PIPSC, and Sam Hammond, the President of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario on the importance of mobilizing the membership and sticking together to achieve fair collective agreements.
Delegates united in strengthening union outreach in the workplace
Delegates worked together on Saturday to develop concrete strategies for engaging members in the workplace and for building the communications and outreach plans that will be essential for success at the bargaining table.
“It was clear that delegates were united in their resolve to defend public services and the working conditions of those who provide them,” said Chris Aylward, National Executive Vice President of PSAC.
On the last day, delegates elected bargaining teams for the five PSAC Treasury Board groups: the PA group, the FB group, the TC group, the SV group and the EB group. Bargaining teams will be preparing the demands for each group in the coming weeks.
“When the government attacks the people who provide public services, they are attacking all Canadians,” said Benson. “I was inspired to see all our delegates unite in their commitment to stand in the way of the decimation of the public service.”
Kelly Egan: Bad diagnosis in public service sick-leave debate
By kelly egan, OTTAWA CITIZEN February 10, 2014
Kelly Egan.
Photograph by: PAT McGRATH , THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
OTTAWA — Here’s what happens when an MP calls in sick, or when Tony Clement is flat out with the flu, unable to crawl to the limo: nothing.
MPs don’t have sick leave. Or maternity leave.
Absent a long-term disability, no one officially counts the days they “call in” sick. They don’t have to produce a doctor’s note. They don’t have to put on their hoarsest voice and fake-cough their way through the morning grovel to the short-pants in PMO.
They can just stay home. Today, tomorrow, all week, next week, all month if necessary. Do MPs take more than 11.5 or 18 days off annually from illness, like the average federal public servant?
Who knows? They don’t even take real attendance in the House of Commons. In a public document that outlines their $160,200 annual salaries ($76,700 extra for cabinet ministers), there is a provision about attendance, about which it’s difficult not to reach for the big sack of snarky.
It says $120 a day will be deducted from pay if a member misses more than 21 days in a session of the House, unless you’re away for these reasons: illness, official business, service in the armed forces or House adjournment.
And here’s the comical justification for those last exclusions: “because these days count as a day of attendance.” So, an MP is counted as “present” even when he’s at home with an illness, and attendance, in any case, seems to be self-reported. And they’re worried about secretaries and clerks jerking the system?
The Treasury Board president’s targeting of sick leave has that weird whiff of government trying to solve problems that don’t exist or aren’t pressing, like the long-form census nonsense or the face-slap to Canada’s war veterans.
And the sick-leave debate has this accusatory undertone of wide-scale fraud, as in: the numbers are higher than the private sector, therefore slackers and fakers, grown diseased on a diet of entitlement, are to blame.
Sick leave, one suspects, is not the biggest worry in the public service. We are, crazily, looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
If we accept that 11.5 days are taken in paid sick leave annually, this is about five per cent of the yearly total of days worked.
The more pressing matter for taxpayers, surely, is this: what are public servants doing with the other 95 per cent?
If gainfully employed, great. If not, this is not a union problem, this is a management problem. If there are too many public servants doing the wrong things, or nothing at all, this is a management problem, not a union plot.
Put another way, if the goal is to reduce the 11.5 sick days to eight or five or zero, what is the point if the worker is asleep at his desk anyway?
And, it should hardly need be said, sick leave is a benefit the government negotiated. It is not a “favour” the employer has bestowed on the working masses. And is it not rather rich that their masters in the House can be “sick” however, whenever?
There will be much parsing of numbers in this dispute and loads of unhelpful omissions. The payout for sick leave has risen sharply in the last decade or so, but why?
The Parliamentary Budget Officer puts the figure in 2011-12 at $871 million, or about 107 per cent higher than in 2001-02. But hold on. Adjusted for inflation, the increase is 68 per cent. And, of that, 25 per cent is due to increased wages, 25 per cent to a larger public service, 33 per cent to more actual sick days, and a further 17 per cent is put down to “interactions” of factors.
The real number to focus on is a 23-per-cent increase (over the decade) in the average number of sick days that a typical public servant takes in a year. (Further complicating things, according to the budget officer, is that Treasury Board counts employees in a way that makes the problem look even worse.)
Possibly the increase is due to an aging workforce and typical middle-aged maladies that afflict the demographic. Possibly there has been an increase in abuse.
Does it make sense, though, that over the course of a decade, tens of thousands of workers have suddenly become cheaters and con artists?
The diagnosis, doc, is just sick in the head.
Federal budget takes aim at public servants’ benefits to save billions
Conservatives take aim at sick leave benefits
By Kathryn May, Postmedia News February 12, 2014 9:31 AM
Photograph by: Aaron Lynett / National Post , Postmedia News
OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty set the stage in Tuesday’s budget for a watershed round of collective bargaining in 2014 with plans to save at least $7.4 billion over six years by reducing the benefits of former and current public servants.
In a one-two punch, the Conservative government is taking aim at sick leave benefits of public servants and the $1.4 billion in salary costs from estimated future banked sick leave.
At the same time, it intends to double the premiums that retired bureaucrats pay for the Public Service Health Care Plan while limiting their eligibility for the plan. That move will save $1.5 billion in 2014-15 and up to $7.4 billion by 2018-19.
The compensation cuts are the biggest savings the government booked in its drive to a balanced budget.
They come on top of the two-year operating freeze for departments the government announced last fall to save $1.7 billion. The freeze will ratchet up the pressure at the negotiating table if departments have to absorb any wage increases, which in turn will squeeze more jobs, programs and services.
The budget also signalled new legislation to get rid of “redundant” organizations and consolidate support and administrative services. Unions have long been braced for services like finance and human resources to be consolidated like the government did with IT when it created Shared Services Canada.
Public servants also took another hit with the government’s decision to give veterans released on medical leave top priority for jobs in Canada’s public service, ahead of laid off and surplus bureaucrats. This means the 1,000 veterans a year can go on the priority list for five years.
The government spends about $46 billion a year on personnel and compensation, its biggest single operating costs. Treasury Board President Tony Clement has vowed to bring this in line with the private sector to make it more “affordable and reasonable.”
The budget comes as the government heads into a much-anticipated round of collective bargaining with 17 federal unions that parallels the run-up to the 2015 election. As expected, the top priority is to replace existing sick leave benefits with a new short-term disability plan.
Unions have signed a “solidarity” agreement to refuse concessions on sick leave but their bargaining clout has been significantly weakened by new legislation that strengthens the government’s hand at the table.
Ian Lee of Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business said the government’s unusual step of booking some of its expected compensation savings as collective bargaining is poised to begin shows the Conservatives won’t be dickering at negotiations.
“They are sending the message to the unions that this is going to happen whether they agree or not,” he said. “Tony Clement isn’t going to back down and they would be grinning from ear to ear if the unions even contemplate a strike because the government feels it has the court of public opinion on its side when it comes to reducing public service pensions and benefits.”
Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the government is balancing its books on the “backs of public servants” and gutting services Canadians rely upon.
Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, called the cuts an “irresponsible abuse of the public purse to build the Conservatives’ election kitty” while compromising programs and services.
NDP MP Paul Dewar said the government could pay for the public service cuts at the ballot box in the seven area Conservative ridings.
“If the Conservatives think they can take public service for granted, I think there is a surprise for them coming up and they better take it seriously,” said Dewar. “It will be interesting to see how they sell this to their constituents.”
But Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, the Conservative MP for Ottawa West-Nepean, said the cuts came as no surprise and are “mild” compared to the Liberals’ downsizing of the 1990s. He said no one is keen on paying more but the benefits enjoyed by public servants will still be among the best in the country after the changes.
“You know the best assurance for stability and security for the National Capital Region’s economy and the public service is a balanced budget, and the good news we are incredibly close and we will be in surplus next year and that will be the ultimate stability and security.”
The budget’s announced changes to the health-care plan have been rumoured since last summer.
The National Association of Federal Retirees quickly launched a national campaign to drum up the support of the 500,000 retired public servants, military and RCMP who belong to the plan.
The government intends to make retired public servants pick up 50 per cent of the cost of contributions for the plan rather than the 25 per cent they pay now.
The government is also changing the eligibility for the plan. Under the existing rules, retirees who worked for two years in the public service can join the plan. The government argues two years is too short a time to access the plan and is lengthening that to six years.
The health plan is optional and popular with retirees, with about three-quarters signing up for the plan when they retire. With the new cost-sharing, the government estimates a retiree’s contribution cost would double from $261 to $550 a year.
Although the government is committed to the two major changes, it is willing to negotiate to ensure “current low-income pensioners are not affected” by the increase in contributions. The government picks up the contribution costs for all existing public servants and that will remain unchanged.
