Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

To PSAC members in Vancouver Quadra,

Please Think Public when voting for your PM in the by-election on March 17th.

Check the Candidates and their Parties’ views and records on public services and privatization.

• downsizing - cuts to Service Canada programs, offices, and workers
• de-regulation - Bill C-39 to amend the Canadian Grain Act. This Act would eliminate important grain weighing and inspection jobs of PSAC members in Vancouver.
• tax cuts - The Conservative Government’s corporate tax cuts will take 60 billion dollars out of revenues over the next five years. This is money that could be spent on national child care and pharmacare programs, and a national housing strategy.

As the largest federal public service union in Canada, the PSAC is asking you to keep these issues in mind when you cast your vote on March 17th.

Downsizing, de-regulation, and tax cuts come at the cost of services to the public and of the jobs of workers providing those services.

The purpose of this notification is to request any and all PSAC members to submit proposals for consideration in the upcoming review of Group B, C, and D of the National Joint Council OHS Directives.

• Interested in Health and Safety issues? Visit the Health and Safety minisite or forum.

In order to ensure full consideration of any recommendations made by our members, it is requested that all recommendations be submitted by June 2, 2008.

Group B includes:
1. Part IX - Sanitation;
2. Part X - Hazardous Substances;
3. Part XII - Personal and Protective Equipment and Clothing;
4. Part XIV - Materials Handling; and
5. Pesticides Directive.

Group C includes:
6. Part III - Elevated Work Structures;
7. Part IV - Elevated Devices;
8. Motor Vehicle Operations Directives
9. Part XIII - Tools and Machinery; and
10. Part XI - Confined Spaces.

Group D includes:
11. Part V - Boilers and Pressure Vessels;
12. Part VI - Lighting (currently not detailed in directives);
13. Part VII - Noise Control (Levels of Sound); and
14. Part VIII - Electrical Safety.

You will find attached the NJC proposal templates (pdf) that you may wish to use to assist you in capturing your input.

Should you have any questions please contact James Little, PSAC BC. Your completed forms should be sent to either James Little or Denis St-Jean

Thank you for your cooperation, James Little

OTTAWA - The picture of employment of historically marginalized Canadians in the federal public service is not as rosy as the government would like to have us believe, says the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a union representing more than 100,000 federal public service workers.

“The report submitted by the Canada Public Service Agency to Parliament on Employment Equity support many of our arguments that we presented earlier this week to the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights,” says Ed Cashman, the PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the National Capital Region.

• Read the report submitted to Parliament here (pdf)

For example, the government claims it is meeting its targets with respect to the representation of persons with disabilities relative to their labour market availability. However, the number of persons with disabilities who are hired into the government is below their labour market availability rate.

“In other words,” says Cashman, “the federal government is meeting its legal obligation not through proportional hirings but through injury and illness of workers already on the job. Some workers become persons with disabilities through the course of their careers.”

(more…)

source: The Ottawa Citizen, Jan 11, pg A1

Fat City is back. And according to a study of federal public service employment trends released yesterday, it’s putting on weight at a rapid rate.

The Statistics Canada study also found that, on average, public servants in this region are younger and more highly trained than those elsewhere in Canada.

The study reported that the number of people who work for the “core public administration” in the national capital region, which includes Ottawa, Gatineau and surrounding areas, grew by a stunning 20 per cent between 1995 and 2006, an additional 12,800 jobs.

By contrast, federal employment in the category fell 5.6 per cent nationally during the same period, shrinking by more than 10,000 to just under 178,000.

The core public administration represents nearly half of all federal employment and includes almost the entire public service other than the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency.

(more…)

The Court submitted its decision on our pension surplus litigation today, rejecting all of our claims.

Justice Panet dismissed our claims on the Employer’s breach of trust, fiduciary duty and the obligations to plan members. In his judgment, he found that Bill C-78 (the amending legislation), authorizes the Employer (the government) to essentially steal the more than $30 billion pension surplus and found that our members cannot claim discrimination under the Canadian Charter.

• Ottawa Citizen: Judge rules public service workers aren’t entitled to $30-billion pension surplus

The judge’s findings seem to rest solely on the basis that our pension plans are legislated plans. We are deeply disturbed that because these pensions are established by legislation, the workers who have contributed to the surplus are barred from having access to that surplus.

We will be studying the Court’s decision in detail in the next few days, and, in consultation with our lawyers, we will determine the best way to proceed. Watch our web site for updates and more details on the Court decision.

source: The Ottawa Citizen, Nov 5 2007

High stress levels, work-life balance main reasons for escalation, PSAC says

The incidence of disability claims by federal public servants is at a 37-year-high, with women bearing a disproportionate share of the burden, according to federal government figures presented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

In a presentation this week to a group of PSAC local officers, James Infantino, a PSAC pensions and disability insurance officer, singled out high job stress levels and problems with work-life balance as key reasons for the escalating claims.

“The federal government is a cesspool right now,” he said in an interview. “The stress levels are inconceivable, actually.”

The high rate of depression in the public service was pointed out in a major federal study of public service compensation that was posted without fanfare on Treasury Board’s website in July.

The study, commissioned in 2004 by former Treasury Board president Reg Alcock, made no attempt to explain why more public servants are unable to work because of psychological problems.

(more…)

OTTAWA – The federal government should call off the sale of nine federal office buildings in the wake of its last minute decision to pull two Vancouver properties out of the transaction, according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Sale of the Sinclair Centre and another office and retail complex in downtown Vancouver had been stalled in late September by an injunction when the Federal Court ruled Ottawa had failed to consult the aboriginal band on whose traditional territory the buildings reside.

• Stop the sale! Send a message to your MP.

Faced with this legal roadblock, Public Works and Government Services Minister Michael Fortier has decided to yank the two Vancouver buildings from the sale.

“We know the sale is a terrible deal for taxpayers. We now also know there are serious legal issues with implications for Aboriginal land claims that have clearly taken the federal government by surprise as well,” said Patty Ducharme, National Executive Vice-President of the PSAC.

(more…)

While Stephen Harper paid lip service to the ideals of peace, order and good government, the October 16th Speech from the Throne does little to promote these ideals in concrete terms.

Announcing a legislative agenda that prominently features deregulation, broad-based tax cuts, self-imposed limits to federal spending along with inaction on the environment, poverty and the growing prosperity gap, the Harper government has served notice that it intends to degrade existing public services and severely limit the government’s ability to address emerging needs in the future.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says the government has got it wrong. The Harper Conservatives continue to fail to understand that enlightened investment in people through stable funding for programs and public services is one of the hallmarks of a progressive, modern society and the birthright of every Canadian.

In the wake of enormous budget surpluses, the government’s failure to invest in Canada and in the health and welfare of all citizens is a national embarrassment. Canadians deserve better!

(more…)

Dear Prime Minister:

On behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, I am writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent turn of events in Burma. Canadians and people around the world have been able to witness growing protests in Burma, led by Buddhist monks and nuns, as they have been gathering momentum in recent days.

• Read the latest news from Burma at labourstart.org

In solidarity with the monks who sacrificed their lives, and to the students and youth who bravely confronted the military dictatorship through peaceful protest, the Burmese Federation of Trade Unions called a general strike for October 1. Once again, the military dictatorship has carried out acts of extreme violence against the Burmese people, including repeatedly firing weapons directly into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, and carrying out mass arrests and murderous assaults.

What is most disturbing is that such gross violations of human rights are standard fare for this regime. Not only has it regularly engaged in the barbaric practice of forced labour and imprisoned the leaders of the movement for democracy such as Aung San Suu Kyi, but also it has unleashed military and police terror each time the courageous people of Burma have attempted to stand up against the dictatorship.

In response, governments around the world, including the Government of Canada, have expressed condemnation of these acts. As recently as June, 2007, the House of Commons unanimously demanded that the Burmese military junta release Suu Kyi from the lengthy house arrest she has endured. She has been forced to spend 11 of the past 17 years in detention since she won a landslide election. The Public Service Alliance of Canada supports an expanded demand that all of Burma’s political prisoners, including the thousands of monks recently arrested in Rangoon, as well as student leaders, be immediately freed.

(more…)

OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) says the federal government needs to change a number of its practices if it is to meet the challenges of the changing demographic of the federal public sector.

PSAC National President John Gordon, appearing today before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, called for changes in staffing approaches and practices if the federal government is to meet the challenges of an aging workforce.

• Read John’s presentation at the national website.

“Staffing for part-time or short-term needs does not attract the same consideration of employment equity objectives as are in place when an employer is staffing on an indeterminate basis,” says Gordon in response to a statement by the President of the Public Service Commission (PSC) that 88.6% of federal staffing is in term, student and casual positions.

According to the PSC’s 2004-05 Annual Report, approximately 65% of those hired permanently into the federal public service were hired from a pool of temporary workers. “Perhaps this is why a Senate Committee recently described this practice as a ‘significant stumbling block’ to achieving employment equity,” says Gordon. “Reducing, if not eliminating, these back door opportunities is the solution and it’s a solution that our staffing agencies ignore.”

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OTTAWA – In spite of its claims, the latest Conservative budget is not going to make Canada better or safer, nor will it make it fairer, according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

“The federal budget proposes to establish a $25-million office to foster public-private partnerships (P3s), when what Canadians need and deserve are quality public services that are publicly funded and delivered,” says PSAC National President John Gordon.

The budget calls for $1.26 billion over 7 years in a national fund for unspecified public-private partnerships, as well as $2.1 billion for gateways and border crossings, including the new Windsor-Detroit access which is already earmarked as a P3 initiative.

“Despite the Conservative budget’s praise for P3s in other countries, experience actually shows that public-private partnerships are less accountable and produce higher long-term costs,” says Gordon. “If our tax dollars are paying for this country’s infrastructure, then we should own it. P3s are simply a way to guarantee corporate profits at taxpayers’ expense.”

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OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government has quietly handed senior government officials and the heads of Crown corporations pay raises and increased bonuses, sounding alarm bells from a tax watchdog and the biggest public service union.

Government executives and deputy ministers, the highest ranking public servants, are in line to get a 2.5-per-cent pay raise.

The chief executives of Crown corporations, such as the CBC and Canada Post, are slated to get three-per-cent raises.

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OTTAWA – After the first debate on Bill C-257 – An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers) – Canadian working families feel more confident that Parliament will finally adopt legislation to ban the use of scabs during labour disputes under the Canada Labour Code.

“It’s a matter of fairness and balance,” explains Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. “The prohibition to use scabs protects the interests of working Canadians and their families against the might of large, often global, employers with no roots in the community.”

Such legislation exists in Quebec since 1977 and in British Columbia since 1993; causing, in both cases, a general decline in the loss of work time due to strikes or lockouts, and marking a diminution of their length and intensity.

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Things aren’t all bad for former Liberal MP Reg Alcock, after being unseated in a surprise defeat Monday night.

After 12 years, two months, and 20 days in office, the outgoing Treasury Board president will collect an estimated $83,897 in an annual pension, or approximately $6,991 per month. Manitobans also needn’t mourn for losing Independent MP Bev Desjarlais, who’ll walk away from serving the Churchill riding since June 1997 with an estimated $40,072 pension per year.

According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 66 MPs who were defeated in Monday’s election or left politics before the vote stand to collect $74.6 million in pensions and severance. Four of the 66 retiring MPs, all of them Liberals, could each collect more than $3 million before they turn 75, estimates calculated by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation suggest.

Alcock rounded out the top 10 list of pension-getting ex-MPs: he’s set to receive more than $1.9 million by the time he hits the age of 75.

Read more at the Brandon Sun.

I like paying taxes. Taxes allow us to pursue our aspirations collectively and thus they greatly enrich the quality of life for the average Canadian family. Taxes have brought us high quality public schools that remain our democratic treasure, low tuition at world-class universities, freedom from fear of crippling health bills and excellent medical services, public parks and libraries, safe streets and livable cities. None of these things comes cheaply.

Taxes are the price that we pay for goods and services produced in the public sector from which we all benefit. They are equivalent to amounts we pay as prices for goods and services produced in the private sector.

Read more at straightgoods.ca.