October 1, 2012
PSAC/UTE Bargaining Team spends week in talks with Canada Revenue Agency, proposes new protections and new rights
Our Bargaining Team spent last week (September 24th through 28th) in talks with CRA as we kicked off contract negotiations. When presenting our package of proposals to the Agency, we made it clear that in this round of bargaining we are seeking significant improvements to our collective agreement, improvements that will afford PSAC/UTE members with new rights and protections.
We also pointed out that the protections and rights that we seek currently exist elsewhere in the federal public sector. These include:
- protections against the contracting out of our jobs
- protections against increased evening and shift work
- new rights for employees such as recognition of our seniority
If other federal employers can agree to these things, so can ours.
And in light of the changes being introduced by the Harper government – negative changes to our pension plan, cuts to services and our jobs, increased contracting out of public service work – now more than ever we need to protect ourselves and the services that we provide. It is for this reason that we also put the Agency on notice that we will want to discuss strengthening the Work Force Adjustment policy when we next meet.
CRA provided a copy of its proposals as well. At the end of the session on Friday the parties agreed to reconvene in negotiations next month (week of November 26th) and again in December. We are also currently discussing January dates.
Our proposals and those of management are posted on both the UTE and PSAC websites. If you have any questions or concerns, speak with your union representative, and go to ute-sei.org or psac.com to sign up for more updates.