When it comes to contract talks with the Trudeau Liberals, it’s a case of ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’!
It appears the bargaining stance adopted by the former Conservative government has carried on seamlessly under the new regime. Talks held in mid-September for a new collective agreement for our members employed by Treasury Board floundered in the face of a continued hardline stance by employer negotiators.
Robyn Benson, National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, publicly announced that she was “frustrated and disappointed” as the latest set of face-to-face negotiations ended with negligible progress.
She said the employer had shown inflexibility on key issues such as wages and sick leave provisions. The implementation of the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system does nothing to ensure confidence that the government could implement a new sick leave program that would provide adequate benefits to our members.
While no future bargaining dates are planned at this time, Benson said PSAC remains open to further negotiations, but only if the employer will make substantive changes to their offer.
“After 26 months of negotiations, we want a collective agreement. But our members deserve better than what the previous Conservative government proposed.” We are still hoping the Liberals will fulfill their election commitment to respect Public Servants.