Union News October 2018
Sisters and Brothers,
I hope you all had a great summer and a good time with your loved ones. Time flies and we are leading our lives at a frantic pace. Sometimes, you have to take the time to stop, rest and enjoy life. The summer period is the ideal time to do so. For my part, I took a few weeks of vacation to unwind and recharge my batteries. That's a good thing because we have a lot of work to do and the fall will be busy.
As you know, unfortunately, some of our members continue to experience various payroll problems due to the failure of the Phoenix system, despite the fact that there is a steady decrease in the number of cases to be processed. We find some consolation in the fact that there are far fewer problematic cases at the CRA than there are in other federal departments whose payroll is handled by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). Despite this, the situation is unacceptable. The federal government must find a way to pay its employees properly and in a timely manner. Prime Minister Trudeau said that his government was open to exploring all possible options to correct this situation.
Well, that's perfect! Because we have an interesting proposal for his government. Indeed, UTE firmly believes that there is a better way to pay CRA employees through its own Corporate Administrative System (CAS). For almost 20 years, the CRA has been partly using the CAS for payroll administration, with no major complications, and paying its 40,000 employees accurately and on time. The “offloading” of 40,000 employees, and two collective agreements, would reduce the burden on the Phoenix system for the rest of the public service. We believe that if improvements were made to CAS, this would allow the CRA to pay its employees directly. To implement this change, federal legislation would be required to authorize CRA to pay its own employees.
Over the summer months, we followed up regularly with the employer to ensure that CRA respected its commitment to pay our members, within a maximum of 150 days, the retroactive payments that they were entitled to receive following the decision rendered on March 14, 2018 by the Binding Conciliation Board on the provisions to reopen our last collective agreement. We also asked our members and their families to sign "CAS Can Do It" cards that we will deliver to the Prime Minister's office. We are asking that his government provide the CRA with the necessary human and financial resources to make improvements to the CAS system. Thanks to the hard work of our Locals and the excellent participation and support of our members, the campaign went very well and is a great success.
I obviously cannot leave you without mentioning that we are back at the bargaining table to try to get you significant improvements to your collective agreement. We recently distributed a poster with our slogan "My Contract, My Voice". We ask you to place this poster prominently in your workplace so that the employer knows how supportive our members are of their bargaining team. We also produced a video that can be found on the UTE and PSAC websites. I invite you to go and look at it.
Let’s stand together and show CRA and Treasury Board that we are serious and that they must respect us! This time, we won't wait four (4) years before signing a new contract! Let's go get what we deserve!
In solidarity,
Marc Brière
National President