Union News October 2018
By now you’ve seen our demands for your collective agreement and you have seen that we are at the table negotiating better provisions for us all. The common theme of improvements to work/life balance is very intentional.
We are asking for more flexibility in hours of work, additional family-related provisions, reduced work-week and increased vacation time amongst others. These are all items I know our members support. But why is this concentration on work/life balance important?
While we don’t anticipate entering economic discussions until after the non-economic demands are addressed, we cannot ignore the impact of events that occurred in the past. On economic issues alone, there is no debate that our increases have been far from cost-of-living or inflation and to make matters worse, we had the 1% rollback in 2010. You may recall that wages had been frozen in the nineties and recently we lost our severance pay. All of this negatively affects your salary today. Therefore, it is important that we continue fighting for better non-economic improvements in addition to salary.
It has long been proven that productivity and morale improve with enhanced work/life balance. Additionally, studies have pointed to public service burnout and absenteeism because of work stress and external stress impacting the workplace. We also have the anxiety and stress of worrying that we are paid properly on a bi-weekly basis. None of these pressures help improve our work/life balance.
This is precisely why we are seeking increased flexibility and paid leave in many articles of the collective agreement.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety website has highlighted the need for more flexible work arrangements, and greater family leave to decrease stress and increase productivity and job satisfaction. This benefits not only the members, but the organization they work in. The Canadian Mental Health Association website also points to available options to improve work/life balance such as flexible start and finish times and the ability to telecommute.
We need to start thinking about relieving the pressures put on us daily through both non-economic and economic means. The demands on members both at work and at home require adding tools in our collective agreement to help out. As usual, we can do this together.
Adam Jackson
2nd National Vice President