PIPSC and the other federal public service unions belonging to the National Joint Council (NJC) dental plan have written to Minister Fortier asking her to prioritize an independent, evidence-based review of the plan.
The NJC dental plan covers most workers in the federal public service. It has not been reviewed since 2018, and requires important upgrades to optimize its value.
In contrast, the PSAC dental plan (which is reviewed separately) has already entered into a review.
The NJC plan has historically been treated as an afterthought to the PSAC plan: a simple copy-paste job. While union representatives of the NJC share many of the concerns of their PSAC counterparts, NJC plan members have unique needs and values that merit consideration through an equally meaningful review.
The NJC Dental plan union representatives believe changes to the plan are needed to:
- Reflect the increased cost of dental services and include advances in preventative dental care.
- Ensure the plan can meet the needs of members in difficult life situations and remains competitive vis-a-vis other major dental plans.
- Adequately protect members from unneeded treatment.
If the Minister issues a mandate as expected, PIPSC will solicit member feedback through an online survey. We will then take this back to the dental board to advocate for these changes.
It's important to note that pension and benefits are not negotiable under federal public service labour law, but the government has adopted a collaborative approach to reviewing the benefit plans. This approach can be time consuming, but we hope to update the plan this calendar year.