PRESS RELEASE: CAPE reaches tentative TR collective agreement with Treasury Board

For immediate release

Have a look at the general document about the provisions included in the tentative agreement: Download the PDF

Ottawa – The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) announced today that a tentative agreement has been reached with the Treasury Board Secretariat for the Translation (TR) group, which includes interpreters, translators and terminologists part of the federal public service.

Close to 990 CAPE members belong to the TR category and stand to gain from this new agreement.

The agreement brings significant improvements to the TR collective agreement, refining benefits in areas such as pay, maternity and parental leave, caregiving leave, wellness and harassment in the workplace, domestic violence, among others.

The bargaining team had been negotiating with the employer since September 2018

“We have had multiple difficult rounds of negotiations since 2018” said Greg Phillips CAPE President. “Our team of negotiators were relentless in pursuing the best possible benefits for our members, and what we see today is the result of months of constant effort and hard work on both sides.”

As required by CAPE’s by-laws, TR members will be voting to ratify or reject the tentative agreement in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the bargaining committee members unanimously recommend its ratification.

General highlights of the agreement:

The new agreement includes the following pay adjustments:

  • 2% effective April 19, 2018;
  • 2% effective April 19, 2019;
  • 1.5% effective April 19, 2020;
  • 1.5% effective April 19, 2021.

The parties have also agreed to a market adjustment of 0.8% effective April 19, 2018 and of 0.2% effective April 19, 2019.

Other improvements include the addition of 5 extra weeks of parental leave and allowance at 93%, where parental leave is shared; new language for parental leave that will allow TR members to benefit fully from the extended Employment Insurance (EI) parental benefits with a top to 55.8% of weekly wages; the expansion of the definition of “family”; a new leave for  caregivers; a new leave for domestic violence; an improvement to the overtime clause for work done on the second day of rest; improvements to provisions pertaining to travelling time and to the definition of the consultation process on the prevention and the resolution of cases of harassment in the workplace; a new protocol to guide the integration of RCMP civilian members into the TR group.

The parties also agreed to provisions for this round⎯ and this round only, with regards to the implementation of the collective agreement. HR systems will be used not Phoenix to calculate the retro pay. The implementation period has been extended by 30 days, and in exchange each TR member will receive $400.

If exceptionally an employee does not receive his or her retro pay during the 180-day implementation period, the employee will receive $50 on day 181, and will receive a second $50 three months later, and at the end of each 3-month period thereafter if necessary to a maximum of $450.

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About CAPE

The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) represents 17,900 economists, policy analysts, researchers, statisticians, translators, interpreters and terminologists – among many others. Their work helps guide and inform policy-making and protect the equal status of our country’s official languages. CAPE members work primarily in the nation’s capital, with many located across the country in every province and territory. www.acep-cape.ca

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Contact

Katia Theriault
Director of Communications 
Canadian association of professional employees (CAPE)
4ème étage-100 rue Queen/ 4th Floor-100 Queen Street
Ottawa (Ontario) K1P 1J9
Tel: 613-236-9181 poste 225
Mobile: 613-818-1840

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