CAPE PROPOSALS ON BEHALF OF THE EC (ES AND SI) GROUP
October 6, 2003
Your union, CAPE, exchanged bargaining proposals with the Employer on September 26th, 2003, with the exception of monetary proposals. Traditionally the Employer will not discuss pay issues until the majority of non-monetary items are settled. We do not expect their approach to be any different this time. Therefore, our pay proposal is still being developed. Once our pay proposal is presented to the Employer, details will be posted on our website.
Your Collective Bargaining Committee has spent the past months developing bargaining proposals for this round of bargaining. Proposals were based on:
Your Team's main objective is achieving your priorities, as determined by the collective bargaining questionnaire. For strategic reasons we cannot reveal the order of priority of our proposals.
Highlights of our proposals are as follows:
Designated Holidays
Additional Designated Holidays such as the days between Christmas and New Year's Day and January 2nd, Heritage Day (3rd Monday in February) and St-Jean Baptiste Day.
Vacation Leave
4 weeks until the 6th year of service, 5 weeks after 6 years, 6 weeks after 15 years and 7 weeks after 23 years.
Service in Public Service organizations subject to the Public Service Superannuation Act count toward the calculation of vacation leave entitlements. In other words, if an employee is allowed to buy back years of service for pension purposes, he or should also be able to have this service count toward vacation leave entitlements.
An employee who resigns from an organization listed in Part II of Schedule I of the Public Service Staff Relations Act (e.g. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) in order to take a position in a federal public service department or agency (i.e. organizations listed in Part I, Schedule I) can transfer up to 35 days of unused vacation leave credits.
Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave
(i.e. the 2 days of leave first negotiated by the Public Service Alliance of Canada after the 2001 Strike)
2 days of Volunteer Leave and 2 days of Personal Leave per year.
Hours of Work and Overtime
Reduce the hours of work per week from 37.5 to 35 hours.
Remove the requirement to work on the first day of rest in order to receive double time on the second day of rest.
Increase the meal allowance to $15.00.
Permit an employee to carry-over all hours of compensatory leave into the next fiscal year.
Variable Hours of Work
Permit the banking of "compressed work days".
Acting Pay
Acting Pay after 1 day.
Specify that an employee shall be paid in the salary range of the higher classification in which he or she acts (to avoid misconception that employees acting in positions in other occupational groups or in EC positions that are more than one level above their own, must be paid in the salary range above their current salary range.
Penological Factor Allowance
Increase the penological factor allowance from $1,600 to $ 3,000.
Travelling Time
Revisit the travelling time issues that were the object of a joint study in the last agreement (e.g. stop-overs, cap on hours of travel).
Call-Back and Stand-By Pay
Permit call-back and stand-by compensation to be taken in the form of leave as well as in cash.
Shift and Weekend Premiums
Express shift premium in percentage of salary (10 % of employee's hourly rate) instead of a flat dollar figure (currently $ 1.75).
Bereavement Leave
New, broader definition of family. Employees be entitled to 5 working days (not calendar days) of bereavement leave if any member of his or her family dies (not only for member of the immediate family). For the purpose of travel related to the death, the employee be entitled to 3 days if he or she travels in Canada and 5 days if he or she travels outside of Canada.
Leave for Family-Related Responsibilities
New, broader definition of family. Two days of leave (instead of one) be granted to an employee to take a family member to medical and dental appointments or for appointments with school authorities. The total amount of leave be increased from 5 days to 6 days in a fiscal year.
Leave for Medical and Dental Appointments
Specify that an employee is not required to submit a leave form or produce a medical certificate for routine, periodic medical or dental appointments.
Maternity Leave
An employee who decides to return on part-time basis after her maternity leave be considered to have fulfilled her return-to-work agreement after she has worked for the same number of weeks as the number of weeks she was on maternity leave. In other words, if she was on maternity leave for 17 weeks, she needs to return to work for 17 weeks, even if it is on a part-time basis, in order for her not to have to repay the top-up she received while on leave.
Exempt a term employee whose term expires before the end of her maternity leave from having to repay the top-up she received while on leave.
An employee working in an institution where she is in direct or regular contact with offenders be entitled to a maternity-related re-assignment or leave.
Parental Leave
As per our proposal under Maternity Leave, an employee who decides to return on part-time basis after his or her parental leave be considered to have fulfilled their return-to-work agreement after he or she has worked for the same number of weeks as the number of weeks they were on parental leave.
Exempt a term employee whose term expires before the end of his or her parental leave from having to repay the top-up he or she received while on leave.
Parental leave be available for 37 non-consecutive weeks (i.e. not only for a single period of 37 consecutive weeks).
Increase the window period during which parental leave can be taken from 52 weeks to 104 weeks when the employee's child is hospitalized.
Leave for the Care of Family
New, broader definition of family. Leave be available for the care of a employee's family member (i.e. not only for the care of a member of the immediate family).
Compassionate Care Allowance
As per the federal government's announcement in the 2003 Federal Budget of a new EI "compassionate care" benefit which will be available in January 2004 to employees who have to provide care or support to a member of their family who is gravely ill with a significant risk of death. We propose that employees who take leave without pay for the care of a dying family member receive a top-up of EI compassionate care benefits (i.e a compassionate care allowance similar to the supplemental maternity and parental allowances).
Disability Insurance Allowance
An employee who has become disabled and who receives EI sickness benefits (i.e. he or she has expended all of his or her sick leave credits before or during the 13 week waiting period for disability insurance) be entitled to a top-up of EI sickness benefits.
Leave for Without Pay for Personal Needs
Leave for personal needs be available every 5 years instead of only once during an employee's total period of employment in the Public Service.
Leave for the Relocation of Spouse
An employee whose spouse is employed in the Public Service and whose spouse is relocated, be entitled to leave without pay for the period of the relocation.
Pre-retirement Leave
As per the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada collective agreements at Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, employees who are 55 years of age and over with a minimum of 30 years of service be granted 5 days of paid leave per year up to a maximum of 25 days.
Personnel Selection Leave
An employee be entitled to up to 3 days of leave with pay per fiscal year for the purposes of preparing for an application to, or interview for, a position in the Public Service.
Career Development and Professional Development
Employees be given the opportunity to attend conferences, conventions and courses at least once every two years (i.e. not only on occasion) and that these opportunities not be subject to budgetary and operational constraints.
Professional development activities such the participation in workshops and short courses and the conduct of research not be subject to budgetary and operational constraints. An employee be given a professional allowance of $2,000 per fiscal year to participate in professional development activities.
Sabbatical Leave
An employee be entitled to take a sabbatical leave to undertake research for a period of one year at 80 percent of annual salary or for a period of 6 months at full salary.
Harassment and Discrimination
Incorporate the definition of harassment found in the Treasury Board Policy on the Prevention and Resolution of Harassment in the Workplace (i.e. include all forms of harassment not only sexual harassment).
That the current grounds for discrimination also include political beliefs and disclosure of information concerning wrongdoing in the workplace.
Specify that if an employee's internal complaint of harassment or discrimination has not been satisfactorily resolved, the employee may submit a grievance at the second level of the grievance procedure.
Discipline
When an employee is required to attend a meeting on disciplinary matters, he or she be informed that they are entitled to have a representative of the Association attend the meeting.
Use of Employer Facilities
Members of the Association be allowed to communicate to members of the Association via the Employer's e-mail and bulletin boards.
Members of the Association be allowed to attend one-hour weekly meetings on union matters during their normal work hours on the Employer's premises.
Part-time Employees
Part-time employees have the same increment period as full-time employees.
Term Employees
Incorporate the Term Employment Policy into the Collective Agreement.
In addition to specific proposals with specific language, CAPE is proposing a more open-ended review and discussion of a select group of problem areas.
The problem areas are:
(1) the definition of family,
(2) overtime,
(3) the usage of sick leave and of other forms of leave, and
(4) the use of consultants to carry out work that should be carried out by ES and SI employees.
Suggested parameters of discussion for each problem area have been set out in very general terms.
Definition of Family
Currently the collective agreement includes an implicit definition of family, and an explicit definition of immediate family in clause 21.02 (Bereavement Leave). It includes a different definition of family in clause 21.09 (Leave Without Pay for the Care of Immediate Family), and yet another definition of family in clause 21.12 (Leave With Pay for Family-Related Responsibilities).
Within the mosaic of Canadian cultures, family takes on a variety of forms. None of the definitions in the collective agreement covers every family reality of each employee in the EC Group. When the family reality of an ES or SI is not reflected in the collective agreement, he or she is denied the use of forms of leave for their stated purposes, and must conversely use forms of leave (eg: vacation or sick leave) for purposes for which they were not meant.
We propose as one possible way to address the multi-varied forms of family is to eliminate all clause specific definitions and to add a general definition of family to Article 2.
Overtime
The 2002 Public Service Employee Survey identified the ES Group as one of the principal groups that suffers from issues relating to overtime, including working for free or what is called unpaid overtime. For example, 53% of respondents from the ES Group were not compensated in the past year for the overtime that they worked whereas 47% did not feel they could claim overtime compensation for the overtime hours that they work.
The survey results confirm what members of the ES Group in particular, have told us time and time again: they cannot claim overtime for the extra hours that they work. The Association proposes that the Employer and the Association explore the possibility of signing an M.O.U. outlining the terms of reference for a joint study to be conducted by the parties into the issue of overtime.
Sick Leave
Members have identified several problems related to the use of sick leave entitlements, as well as to the use of other forms of leave. Many members complain that sick leave credits accumulate as work load and constraints make it difficult if not impossible to be away from work, even when sick. Concomitantly, the accumulated sick leave credits are never used. Members forgo using them when sick, and loose the credits eventually when they resign or retire. Paradoxically these same members, and others who do not accumulate large banks of sick leave, do not have sufficient leave of other types (eg: family-related responsibilities leave) to cover needs as defined in the collective agreement.
Ways to address the problem include: increase the quantum of leave for the various provisions of the collective agreement; increase the quanta while establishing a bridge between other forms of leave (e.g. allow the use of sick leave for family-related responsibilities); establish the principle of conversion, according to a given formula, of sick leave to specified forms of leave (personal leave, volunteer leave, etc) beyond a minimum number of credits.
The Association proposes to discuss with the Employer, various sets of solutions to address the problems of usage of sick leave and of other forms of leave, in particular Family-Related Responsibilities Leave
Use of Consultants
Since the Program Review exercise of a few years ago, there has been a gradual and constant increase in instances when ES and SI employees have communicated to their bargaining agent that work was being carried out by independent consultants.
The issue of outside consultants carrying out bargaining unit work raises a number of related issues. Is it in the best interest of the Canadian public that policy work, for example, is carried out by interested parties? Is the use of consultants the most efficient way to use public monies (e.g. @ $800 a day)? Most relevant to our bargaining table, what are the effects of the use of consultants on the bargaining unit, on the organization of work, on the distribution of assignments, etc.
The Association proposes that the Employer and the Association explore the possibility of signing an M.O.U. outlining the terms of reference for a joint study to be conducted by the parties into the issue of the use of outside consultants to carry out ES and SI work.
October 6, 2003
Your union, CAPE, exchanged bargaining proposals with the Employer on September 26th, 2003, with the exception of monetary proposals. Traditionally the Employer will not discuss pay issues until the majority of non-monetary items are settled. We do not expect their approach to be any different this time. Therefore, our pay proposal is still being developed. Once our pay proposal is presented to the Employer, details will be posted on our website.
Your Collective Bargaining Committee has spent the past months developing bargaining proposals for this round of bargaining. Proposals were based on:
- input received from the membership (input from the collective bargaining questionnaire sent to all members and day-to-day input from the membership)
- problems with the interpretation of the collective agreement
- provisions in other collective agreements
- ES and SI Groups responses to the 2002 Public Service Employee Survey
Your Team's main objective is achieving your priorities, as determined by the collective bargaining questionnaire. For strategic reasons we cannot reveal the order of priority of our proposals.
Highlights of our proposals are as follows:
PROPOSAL HIGHLIGHTS
Designated Holidays
Additional Designated Holidays such as the days between Christmas and New Year's Day and January 2nd, Heritage Day (3rd Monday in February) and St-Jean Baptiste Day.
Vacation Leave
4 weeks until the 6th year of service, 5 weeks after 6 years, 6 weeks after 15 years and 7 weeks after 23 years.
Service in Public Service organizations subject to the Public Service Superannuation Act count toward the calculation of vacation leave entitlements. In other words, if an employee is allowed to buy back years of service for pension purposes, he or should also be able to have this service count toward vacation leave entitlements.
An employee who resigns from an organization listed in Part II of Schedule I of the Public Service Staff Relations Act (e.g. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) in order to take a position in a federal public service department or agency (i.e. organizations listed in Part I, Schedule I) can transfer up to 35 days of unused vacation leave credits.
Volunteer Leave and Personal Leave
(i.e. the 2 days of leave first negotiated by the Public Service Alliance of Canada after the 2001 Strike)
2 days of Volunteer Leave and 2 days of Personal Leave per year.
Hours of Work and Overtime
Reduce the hours of work per week from 37.5 to 35 hours.
Remove the requirement to work on the first day of rest in order to receive double time on the second day of rest.
Increase the meal allowance to $15.00.
Permit an employee to carry-over all hours of compensatory leave into the next fiscal year.
Variable Hours of Work
Permit the banking of "compressed work days".
Acting Pay
Acting Pay after 1 day.
Specify that an employee shall be paid in the salary range of the higher classification in which he or she acts (to avoid misconception that employees acting in positions in other occupational groups or in EC positions that are more than one level above their own, must be paid in the salary range above their current salary range.
Penological Factor Allowance
Increase the penological factor allowance from $1,600 to $ 3,000.
Travelling Time
Revisit the travelling time issues that were the object of a joint study in the last agreement (e.g. stop-overs, cap on hours of travel).
Call-Back and Stand-By Pay
Permit call-back and stand-by compensation to be taken in the form of leave as well as in cash.
Shift and Weekend Premiums
Express shift premium in percentage of salary (10 % of employee's hourly rate) instead of a flat dollar figure (currently $ 1.75).
Bereavement Leave
New, broader definition of family. Employees be entitled to 5 working days (not calendar days) of bereavement leave if any member of his or her family dies (not only for member of the immediate family). For the purpose of travel related to the death, the employee be entitled to 3 days if he or she travels in Canada and 5 days if he or she travels outside of Canada.
Leave for Family-Related Responsibilities
New, broader definition of family. Two days of leave (instead of one) be granted to an employee to take a family member to medical and dental appointments or for appointments with school authorities. The total amount of leave be increased from 5 days to 6 days in a fiscal year.
Leave for Medical and Dental Appointments
Specify that an employee is not required to submit a leave form or produce a medical certificate for routine, periodic medical or dental appointments.
Maternity Leave
An employee who decides to return on part-time basis after her maternity leave be considered to have fulfilled her return-to-work agreement after she has worked for the same number of weeks as the number of weeks she was on maternity leave. In other words, if she was on maternity leave for 17 weeks, she needs to return to work for 17 weeks, even if it is on a part-time basis, in order for her not to have to repay the top-up she received while on leave.
Exempt a term employee whose term expires before the end of her maternity leave from having to repay the top-up she received while on leave.
An employee working in an institution where she is in direct or regular contact with offenders be entitled to a maternity-related re-assignment or leave.
Parental Leave
As per our proposal under Maternity Leave, an employee who decides to return on part-time basis after his or her parental leave be considered to have fulfilled their return-to-work agreement after he or she has worked for the same number of weeks as the number of weeks they were on parental leave.
Exempt a term employee whose term expires before the end of his or her parental leave from having to repay the top-up he or she received while on leave.
Parental leave be available for 37 non-consecutive weeks (i.e. not only for a single period of 37 consecutive weeks).
Increase the window period during which parental leave can be taken from 52 weeks to 104 weeks when the employee's child is hospitalized.
Leave for the Care of Family
New, broader definition of family. Leave be available for the care of a employee's family member (i.e. not only for the care of a member of the immediate family).
Compassionate Care Allowance
As per the federal government's announcement in the 2003 Federal Budget of a new EI "compassionate care" benefit which will be available in January 2004 to employees who have to provide care or support to a member of their family who is gravely ill with a significant risk of death. We propose that employees who take leave without pay for the care of a dying family member receive a top-up of EI compassionate care benefits (i.e a compassionate care allowance similar to the supplemental maternity and parental allowances).
Disability Insurance Allowance
An employee who has become disabled and who receives EI sickness benefits (i.e. he or she has expended all of his or her sick leave credits before or during the 13 week waiting period for disability insurance) be entitled to a top-up of EI sickness benefits.
Leave for Without Pay for Personal Needs
Leave for personal needs be available every 5 years instead of only once during an employee's total period of employment in the Public Service.
Leave for the Relocation of Spouse
An employee whose spouse is employed in the Public Service and whose spouse is relocated, be entitled to leave without pay for the period of the relocation.
Pre-retirement Leave
As per the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada collective agreements at Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, employees who are 55 years of age and over with a minimum of 30 years of service be granted 5 days of paid leave per year up to a maximum of 25 days.
Personnel Selection Leave
An employee be entitled to up to 3 days of leave with pay per fiscal year for the purposes of preparing for an application to, or interview for, a position in the Public Service.
Career Development and Professional Development
Employees be given the opportunity to attend conferences, conventions and courses at least once every two years (i.e. not only on occasion) and that these opportunities not be subject to budgetary and operational constraints.
Professional development activities such the participation in workshops and short courses and the conduct of research not be subject to budgetary and operational constraints. An employee be given a professional allowance of $2,000 per fiscal year to participate in professional development activities.
Sabbatical Leave
An employee be entitled to take a sabbatical leave to undertake research for a period of one year at 80 percent of annual salary or for a period of 6 months at full salary.
Harassment and Discrimination
Incorporate the definition of harassment found in the Treasury Board Policy on the Prevention and Resolution of Harassment in the Workplace (i.e. include all forms of harassment not only sexual harassment).
That the current grounds for discrimination also include political beliefs and disclosure of information concerning wrongdoing in the workplace.
Specify that if an employee's internal complaint of harassment or discrimination has not been satisfactorily resolved, the employee may submit a grievance at the second level of the grievance procedure.
Discipline
When an employee is required to attend a meeting on disciplinary matters, he or she be informed that they are entitled to have a representative of the Association attend the meeting.
Use of Employer Facilities
Members of the Association be allowed to communicate to members of the Association via the Employer's e-mail and bulletin boards.
Members of the Association be allowed to attend one-hour weekly meetings on union matters during their normal work hours on the Employer's premises.
Part-time Employees
Part-time employees have the same increment period as full-time employees.
Term Employees
Incorporate the Term Employment Policy into the Collective Agreement.
DISCUSSION OF 4 PROBLEM AREAS
In addition to specific proposals with specific language, CAPE is proposing a more open-ended review and discussion of a select group of problem areas.
The problem areas are:
(1) the definition of family,
(2) overtime,
(3) the usage of sick leave and of other forms of leave, and
(4) the use of consultants to carry out work that should be carried out by ES and SI employees.
Suggested parameters of discussion for each problem area have been set out in very general terms.
Definition of Family
Currently the collective agreement includes an implicit definition of family, and an explicit definition of immediate family in clause 21.02 (Bereavement Leave). It includes a different definition of family in clause 21.09 (Leave Without Pay for the Care of Immediate Family), and yet another definition of family in clause 21.12 (Leave With Pay for Family-Related Responsibilities).
Within the mosaic of Canadian cultures, family takes on a variety of forms. None of the definitions in the collective agreement covers every family reality of each employee in the EC Group. When the family reality of an ES or SI is not reflected in the collective agreement, he or she is denied the use of forms of leave for their stated purposes, and must conversely use forms of leave (eg: vacation or sick leave) for purposes for which they were not meant.
We propose as one possible way to address the multi-varied forms of family is to eliminate all clause specific definitions and to add a general definition of family to Article 2.
Overtime
The 2002 Public Service Employee Survey identified the ES Group as one of the principal groups that suffers from issues relating to overtime, including working for free or what is called unpaid overtime. For example, 53% of respondents from the ES Group were not compensated in the past year for the overtime that they worked whereas 47% did not feel they could claim overtime compensation for the overtime hours that they work.
The survey results confirm what members of the ES Group in particular, have told us time and time again: they cannot claim overtime for the extra hours that they work. The Association proposes that the Employer and the Association explore the possibility of signing an M.O.U. outlining the terms of reference for a joint study to be conducted by the parties into the issue of overtime.
Sick Leave
Members have identified several problems related to the use of sick leave entitlements, as well as to the use of other forms of leave. Many members complain that sick leave credits accumulate as work load and constraints make it difficult if not impossible to be away from work, even when sick. Concomitantly, the accumulated sick leave credits are never used. Members forgo using them when sick, and loose the credits eventually when they resign or retire. Paradoxically these same members, and others who do not accumulate large banks of sick leave, do not have sufficient leave of other types (eg: family-related responsibilities leave) to cover needs as defined in the collective agreement.
Ways to address the problem include: increase the quantum of leave for the various provisions of the collective agreement; increase the quanta while establishing a bridge between other forms of leave (e.g. allow the use of sick leave for family-related responsibilities); establish the principle of conversion, according to a given formula, of sick leave to specified forms of leave (personal leave, volunteer leave, etc) beyond a minimum number of credits.
The Association proposes to discuss with the Employer, various sets of solutions to address the problems of usage of sick leave and of other forms of leave, in particular Family-Related Responsibilities Leave
Use of Consultants
Since the Program Review exercise of a few years ago, there has been a gradual and constant increase in instances when ES and SI employees have communicated to their bargaining agent that work was being carried out by independent consultants.
The issue of outside consultants carrying out bargaining unit work raises a number of related issues. Is it in the best interest of the Canadian public that policy work, for example, is carried out by interested parties? Is the use of consultants the most efficient way to use public monies (e.g. @ $800 a day)? Most relevant to our bargaining table, what are the effects of the use of consultants on the bargaining unit, on the organization of work, on the distribution of assignments, etc.
The Association proposes that the Employer and the Association explore the possibility of signing an M.O.U. outlining the terms of reference for a joint study to be conducted by the parties into the issue of the use of outside consultants to carry out ES and SI work.