The Union of Taxation Employees stands out as the only federal union that has yet to give up severance benefits for public servants who quit voluntarily. And it’s the only large union that isn’t at the table in the current round of collective bargaining to negotiate the government’s demand to replace the existing sick leave regime with a new short-term disability plan.
The union, which represents nearly 29,000 employees at the Canada Revenue Agency, recently made its case for keeping severance pay to a three-member Public Interest Commission that was struck after the agency and union hit an impasse after two years of trying to negotiate a new contract.
The government has negotiated deals with all other federal unions to surrender the accumulation of severance pay, which public servants used to receive in lump-sum payments when they voluntarily retired or resigned. It’s now paying public servants millions to cash out what they accumulated before the Conservatives halted the perk.
The taxation employees’ union also argued for a three-year contract rather than the two-year deal demanded by the government. A retroactive two-year deal would expire almost immediately and throw the union into the contentious round of negotiations over sick leave that the other unions are grappling with.
By law, the government cannot propose changes to sick leave for CRA employees until this contract is settled. That’s why the government wants the two-year deal: its quick expiry would allow the government to include CRA in negotiations for the same sick leave proposal on offer to all other unions.
The proposal would reduce sick leave to five days a year — compared to the 15 days public servants now get — and abolish the outstanding $5.2 billion worth of unused sick leave that employees have banked over the years.
“I think it’s fair to say they want us in this round ASAP,” said taxation union head Robert Campbell. “That means we would walk out of one round of negotiations … to walk into another round of negotiations with demands for more concessions (on sick leave.) That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement declined to comment because the two parties are still negotiating.
The other big issue is wages, with the union demanding a three-per-cent-a-year increase along with a one-per-cent economic adjustment effective the first day of the contract. The government has countered with a two-year offer of 1.75 per cent in the first year and two per cent in the second year — with the surrender of severance pay for voluntary departures.
The Public Interest Commission must issue a report within 30 days of the hearings held on Oct. 8 and 9. Its recommendations are not binding but are aimed at helping the parties get back to table to negotiate. Even so, the union expects talks wouldn’t resume before December or January.
The CRA is the largest agency in the federal government, employing about 40,000 people. The government has long said it wanted to roll out its new sick leave and disability regime to all employees at the same time and, by 2016, not have employees on different systems.
Because the union and CRA have been locked in negotiations for about two years, their negotiations are still under older rules in place before the Conservatives made sweeping changes last year to the Public Service Labour Relations Act. Those changes dramatically reduced unions’ bargaining power and right to strike.
This means UTE still has the right to strike, which could have a significant impact on processing tax returns if the dispute drags into 2015. It’s unclear what would happen to the timing of the rollout of the new short-term disability plan if CRA, the largest agency in government, is not part of current negotiations on revamping sick leave.
Treasury Board has insisted from the start of these talks that it wants a negotiated settlement on sick leave with unions. It has the power, however, to legislate.
Campbell said the labour relations with the agency have been good over the years, with the parties settling new contracts even before the old ones expired.
The tax agency has negotiated independently with its various unions since it was created in 1999 as a quasi-independent agency, but Campbell said that changed when the Conservatives passed legislation several years ago allowing Treasury Board to set the negotiating mandate for all federal agencies and Crown corporations.
“We would love to sit down and negotiate a deal we can live with but it’s hard when Treasury Board has a knife to your throat and says, ‘This is what you are going to get.’ I don’t think anyone could say that is negotiations,” said Campbell.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: BY KATHRYN MAY
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