- AGREEMENT BETWEEN UTE AND THE CRA REGARDING PHOENIX DAMAGES COMPENSATION:
We continue to meet with senior management from the CRA's compensation sector regarding the agreement between UTE and the Agency on the Phoenix damages compensation.
The Agency has informed us that Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) confirmed on August 9 that the payments for the catch-up agreement signed with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) Audit Finances Sciences (AFS) group would be disbursed on September 1.
For those UTE members who received a leave of absence under the MOU signed in 2019 with the PIPSC AFS group, they will also receive their outstanding payments with the "me too" clause. The PIPSC MOU has been in effect since the summer of 2019, so a current UTE member may have previously been a member of the PIPSC AFS group (permanent or acting). The employee could have received a leave of absence in lieu of a lump sum payment, as they only had to be on strength for at least one day in a given fiscal year (2016-2017 through 2019-2020) in a position covered by the 2019 MOU. For example, if a UTE member had an acting assignment in a PIPSC-represented position from September 2018 through December 2018, he or she should have received one day of leave in his or her leave bank.
Current employees whose daily rate of pay is less than $300 will be eligible to receive, for every fiscal year for which they earned a leave credit or are entitled to a leave credit, any difference between their daily rate of pay and the amount of $300. They are also entitled to receive payments for late implementation of the 2014 collective agreements as part of the PSAC/UTE damages agreement for every year they received a leave credit. Late implementation payments are $400 for fiscal year 2016/2017 and $200 for every fiscal year from 2017/2018 to 2019/2020.
In addition, the PSAC informed us on August 17 that our former and retired members will finally be able to access the claims processes in December 2021.
We will keep you informed of any new developments as things progress.
- PHOENIX DAMAGES COMPENSATION DEEMED TAXABLE
On August 17, the PSAC informed us that, to ensure a quick resolution of this dispute affecting thousands of members, it has proposed to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that both parties seek a ruling from the Tax Court of Canada. This way, it will expedite the process and prevent our members from going through the usual appeals process.
We will continue updating you as soon as we have more information.
- UNASSIGNED UTE MEMBERS
Last June, I mentioned to you that we had forwarded the report containing the list of unassigned members to CRA while requesting that the Agency provide us with the location of the members in question. The Agency returned us this list. When we transferred the list to the PSAC's Membership Services section, they advised us that we had to update the list ourselves in the Unionware system, as the department in question is very busy and currently understaffed. We have entrusted this task to Louise Dorion, administrative assistant at the UTE National office in charge of processing members' information. The work is progressing well and we are following the situation closely.
Respectfully submitted,
Marc Brière
National President