PSAC/UTE Bargaining Team continues push for leave improvements, raises issues concerning health and safety and union communication in the workplace.

This past week (January 28-31) our Bargaining Team spent four days in talks with CRA.  The parties spent the week in negotiations over a number of issues, including leave provisions, access to the collective agreement and union communication in the workplace. 

With respect to leave, our Bargaining Team has proposed a number of improvements in this round of bargaining.  We are pushing for language in our collective agreement that would protect access to Leave With Income Averaging.  We are also proposing improvements to

family related responsibility leave, the expansion of access to bereavement and leave for the care of family, as well as improvements in terms of access to health and safety training.

We also continued discussion concerning our proposal to improve union communication in the workplace.  While there was considerable discussion on these matters, little progress was made this week in negotiations. 

Over the course of our final day of bargaining our team again reiterated at the bargaining table the critical importance of achieving enhanced protections in this round of bargaining for our jobs and the services that we provide.  The proposals that we have made in these areas are modeled on what has been agreed to by other federal employers such as Canada Post and the Senate of Canada.  Our position is that if other federal employers can agree to these protections, CRA can and should do the same      

We are scheduled to meet again in negotiations next month (the week of February 25th).  We'll be sure to update as things progress.  We urge all PSAC/UTE members to join us in wearing the card inserts for our badge holders that are being handed out on Valentine's Day.

Our initial 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-afpc.com to sign up for more updates.

PSAC/UTE members at Canada Revenue Agency

United for a Fair Contract