EC Bargaining Proposals and Member Values
May 11, 2004
(Although we promised you an explanatory article regarding our demands vis-à-vis Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave, we thought perhaps we should first provide you with an overview of the thinking behind the proposals that your negotiating team brought to the table on your behalf. Next week - Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave.)
Through the Spring of 2003 your Collective Bargaining Committee developed bargaining proposals for the current round of negotiations for a new collective agreement to replace the one which expired June 21, 2003. Taking its lead from the members as expressed through:
• input received directly from the membership in the collective bargaining; questionnaire sent to all members and day to day input from the membership;
• problems with the interpretation of the collective agreement as identified by the CAPE Labour Relations Officers and in grievances;
• an examination of provisions in other collective agreements; and
• ES and SI Groups responses to the 2002 Public Service Employee Survey,
the Collective Bargaining Committee fashioned an extensive list of proposals. At the first meeting, employer representatives were given a 68 page document giving CAPE's proposed contract language.
In developing and prioritizing proposals the Bargaining Committee made groupings in two main areas as follows:
Work and Family Life Balance - proposals on overtime compensation, vacation leave, holidays, volunteer and personal needs leave, family related leave, maternity and parental leave, compassionate care allowance and bereavement leave.
In work and family life balance, proposals are intended to address reports in the public service survey that EC members are working extensive overtime and for various reasons are not being paid for it. Our annual leave provisions are far behind international standards, especially in Europe. Other leave proposals are intended to address federal policy changes, such as compassionate leave changes in the Employment Insurance Act.
Conditions of Work - proposals to strengthen the harassment article, to expand the prohibited grounds for no discrimination, to improve allowances, improve personnel selection leave and of course a fair pay increase.
Finally, further to a Federal Court decision that found the wording of marriage leave in federal public service collective agreements discriminatory, CAPE proposed a change. The proposal would bring the collective agreement into line with the emerging consensus in Canadian society as well as with the changing legal landscape by providing leave for all unions regardless of the gender of the two spouses.
We went to the employer with some expectation that with a desire to be an employer of choice they would respond positively in some areas. To date there has been little substantive movement on the employer's part in any area. We have now moved to arbitration as we see it as the only way to make any gains in this round of bargaining.
Next week: Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave
May 11, 2004
(Although we promised you an explanatory article regarding our demands vis-à-vis Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave, we thought perhaps we should first provide you with an overview of the thinking behind the proposals that your negotiating team brought to the table on your behalf. Next week - Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave.)
Through the Spring of 2003 your Collective Bargaining Committee developed bargaining proposals for the current round of negotiations for a new collective agreement to replace the one which expired June 21, 2003. Taking its lead from the members as expressed through:
• input received directly from the membership in the collective bargaining; questionnaire sent to all members and day to day input from the membership;
• problems with the interpretation of the collective agreement as identified by the CAPE Labour Relations Officers and in grievances;
• an examination of provisions in other collective agreements; and
• ES and SI Groups responses to the 2002 Public Service Employee Survey,
the Collective Bargaining Committee fashioned an extensive list of proposals. At the first meeting, employer representatives were given a 68 page document giving CAPE's proposed contract language.
In developing and prioritizing proposals the Bargaining Committee made groupings in two main areas as follows:
Work and Family Life Balance - proposals on overtime compensation, vacation leave, holidays, volunteer and personal needs leave, family related leave, maternity and parental leave, compassionate care allowance and bereavement leave.
In work and family life balance, proposals are intended to address reports in the public service survey that EC members are working extensive overtime and for various reasons are not being paid for it. Our annual leave provisions are far behind international standards, especially in Europe. Other leave proposals are intended to address federal policy changes, such as compassionate leave changes in the Employment Insurance Act.
Conditions of Work - proposals to strengthen the harassment article, to expand the prohibited grounds for no discrimination, to improve allowances, improve personnel selection leave and of course a fair pay increase.
Finally, further to a Federal Court decision that found the wording of marriage leave in federal public service collective agreements discriminatory, CAPE proposed a change. The proposal would bring the collective agreement into line with the emerging consensus in Canadian society as well as with the changing legal landscape by providing leave for all unions regardless of the gender of the two spouses.
We went to the employer with some expectation that with a desire to be an employer of choice they would respond positively in some areas. To date there has been little substantive movement on the employer's part in any area. We have now moved to arbitration as we see it as the only way to make any gains in this round of bargaining.
Next week: Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave