This week, May 6-12, is National Nursing Week. We take this time to celebrate the incredible contributions nurses make to our public health care system and our communities. We are grateful.

We stand in solidarity with nurses across the country fighting for safe workplaces and to protect the public health care system that we all depend on. Take a moment to sign the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions petition calling for an end to violence in health care.

At the central bargaining table, we are fighting for pay protections, improved family leave and stronger anti-harassment measures. Nurses in our membership need these improvements to protect themselves at work and afford a healthy and sustainable work-life balance.

Show your support for our nurses and sign the Do Better pledge!

Sign the Pledge

“Public service professionals have been waiting for fair compensation for what Phoenix has done to them,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau. “We will continue to work steadfastly at ensuring that our members receive every dollar that is owed to them, as is their right. Above and beyond that, we’ve secured this settlement so each and every public service professional gets significant and immediate compensation for the hardship they’ve experienced under Phoenix.”

All public service professionals represented by PIPSC will receive a week of paid leave in recognition of the hardship they’ve suffered under the Phoenix pay system.

The Union Management Consultation Subcommittee on Damages has worked diligently over the last 2 years to find a fair and practical solution to damages under Phoenix.

Further details are included in the following press release. 

“This settlement is a recognition of the damages that our members have suffered under Phoenix,” said Daviau. “We will continue to pursue individual cases of damages and the replacement of the Phoenix pay system.”

On behalf of all PIPSC members, I want to express our support and encouragement to our fellow members and all of those currently affected by the extensive flooding across the country.

Many of our members have been directly impacted as a result of the flooding and evacuations.

I’d like to sincerely thank our members and staff who have already pitched in to help, especially those that have helped me personally weather this flood. I know in my area more help is needed in both Ottawa and Gatineau. 

Your department and management will continue to provide updates and direction on workplace access and commuting during this time of emergency.

We applaud you and the extraordinary responders who work tirelessly to save homes and protect communities.

PIPSC stands with you in solidarity and we call for urgent action from all levels of government to reverse and mitigate the dire impact of climate change.

Better together,

Debi Daviau
President

The PIPSC Central Table Bargaining Team met with Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) representatives on April 24th and 25th.

The two parties have continued to exchange counter-proposals. PIPSC is exploring solutions on important issues such as the elimination of harassment in the workplace and rules for pay administration. Progress has been made on leave for victims of domestic violence.

Treasury Board has also tabled the first comprehensive proposal. There are still significant differences in the positions of the two parties and we will use the weeks ahead to assess our options moving forward.

The next meeting dates are scheduled for May 14 - 16, 2019. Your strong support of the Do Better campaign as well as your participation on the days of action is even more important in these upcoming weeks as they are an important part of our collective efforts.

PIPSC Central Bargaining Team members: Robert Scott (Bargaining Coordinator), CS; Louis Poirier (Communications Officer), NRC-RO/RCO; Mehran Alaee, RE; Adam Fenwick, SH; Stéphanie Fréchette, CFIA-S&A; Dale Hudson, NR; Kim McGuire, AV; Elizabeth Ptasznik, SP; Robert Trudeau, AFS; Suzelle Brosseau and Pierre Ouellet, PIPSC negotiators.

At the 2018 Annual General Meeting, Resolution F-4 (Professionals Canada) was referred to the Board of Directors with direction to consult on the proposed project with the Advisory Council and impacted groups to provide a report to the 2019 AGM.

In response to the AGM decision, the Board and the Advisory Council created a representative sample of the two bodies for a deliberative process. In consultation with the Advisory Council, the Taskforce identified more than 150 issues and questions that needed to be examined. Through deliberations among its members with experts as needed, the Taskforce has examined the questions and comments of the Advisory Council and is proceeding to formulate recommendations to be contained in the final report.

The Taskforce is on track to present a preliminary report to the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council on August 10, 2019. The final report will be provided to the Board of Directors on October 26, 2019. The Taskforce report and a resolution with respect to the establishment of Professionals Canada will proceed to the AGM to fulfill the direction of the delegates to the 2018 AGM.

In order to ensure utmost transparency in these deliberations, the working documents of the Taskforce have been made available to all members with Portal access. These documents include questions generated by the Advisory Council and answered by the Taskforce and the data used by the Taskforce to support its answers.

To review these documents, please click here and log into your portal account. If you do not have a portal account, please click here to set up an account.

Today, we join with workers across the globe to celebrate the significant gains in labour rights that have been made throughout history. We honour the years of workers’ organizing, great risk and loss of life that won us all an 8-hour work day.

We draw strength from these historic wins and today’s global solidarity as we continue to fight for and defend the rights of workers.

In the Canadian context, it is more important than ever that as union members we work to defend and expand the public health care system. There is great need for a national pharmacare plan that will not only save millions of dollars but also ensure every person in Canada can access the medications they need to live.

We will continue to join our voices with the entire labour movement in calling for living wages, decent benefits and pensions, pay equity, free collective bargaining rights and workplace safety for all workers. Because we know we are better together!

Each year, on the National Day of Mourning, we commemorate those who lost their lives, were injured or became ill due to a work accident or occupational exposure.

Join PIPSC members and labour activists across the country in ceremonies this Sunday, April 28.

ATTEND A CEREMONY

We continue to call on employers and governments to do more to prevent such fatalities from happening in the first place. Take action with workers in Canada and email your labour minister to demand:

• proactive inspections, a robust enforcement regime, strong health and safety committees, and a systemic approach to prevention,
• a strong, effective workplace health and safety committee,
• ensure consequences when employers do not fulfill their duty to ensure a safe workplace, and
• call on your federal counterpart to reinstate the previous, stronger definition of danger in the Canada Labour Code. The right to refuse unsafe work is one of the three basic rights at work in Canada.

Send an email

Take the time to discuss occupational health and safety issues with your co-workers, as well as about how accidents could affect their lives.

Accidents happen so fast! Yet many are avoidable.

PIPSC is now at the central bargaining table fighting for pay protections, improved family leave and stronger anti-harassment measures.

This is our fight to the finish line.

Join our webinar for an overview of our key proposals, the Do Better campaign and the changing political climate that makes our push to the finish line more important than ever.

REGISTER NOW

Register for the 45-minute webinar that best fits your schedule throughout the day and evening of April 29th and 30th.

Our public service is the best in the world. You give your best at home and in your community. Every day you challenge yourself to do better.

Isn’t it time for your employer to do the same?

Women from across the globe gathered in New York for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. At this sixty-third gathering of its kind, our own VP Norma Domey represented us as a part of the Canadian Labour Congress delegation.

This year’s meeting of the commission focused on social protection systems, access to public services, sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Themes which hold particular importance for trade unions.

VP Domey attended many sessions, official meetings, trainings, NGO briefings and valuable networking events. One of the many sessions focused on enhancing the role of women in the negotiation process as well as in building peace and security. The panel discussed best practices, women’s experiences, and identified possible entry points, mechanisms and recommendations to enhance women’s roles.

“It was an honour to represent my union and an inspiration to be organizing with so many powerful women from around the world. There is no doubt we have a long way to go, and in many ways these are tough times, but we have so much to work with.” Domey says.

In 2001, I had to fight for parental leave.

Working for the federal government, my third baby on the way, my employer refused to implement new legislation extending parental leave top-up pay from six to twelve months, as provided in our collective agreement.

Eventually, I convinced my colleagues to write a briefing note that our assistant deputy minister used to ensure 12 months of top-up parental leave pay for me and every other pregnant woman in my department.

That fight kick-started my involvement in the union.

Remember, this was the federal public service – a workplace that ought to lead by example.

No one, I thought – least of all a federal public servant – should have to fight to take care of their family. How wrong I was!

Times have changed but challenges haven’t.

More time with family is a top priority of workers in eight countries

A rapid rise in the numbers of millennial parents in the workplace, a decline of boomers, an increase in precarious employment, the high cost of housing, the lowered expectations for the global economy – all serve to magnify what matters most (or ought to): more time with family. According to a recent survey of 3,000 workers in eight countries (including Canada) the top priority of most is to spend more time with family.

In 2017, the Trudeau government announced that all working parents under federal jurisdiction would be given the option of extending their parental leave even further – from the current 35 weeks to as much as 61 weeks. For a government elected on, among other things, growing the middle class, advancing feminism and bettering work-life balance, it seemed sensible and progressive.

But a clear weakness in the policy from the start was its failure to provide any additional money to support extended parental leave. Sure, parents can extend their leave further but only on the same budget. They can choose to receive the existing employment insurance (EI) parental benefit rate of 55 per cent of average weekly earnings over 35 weeks or a lower benefit rate of 33 per cent spread out over a maximum of 61 weeks.

That’s left employers such as the federal government with some difficult questions to answer – specifically, how the federal government can lead by example and make it financially feasible for federal public servants to take advantage of the extended parental leave.

In addition, parental leave isn’t the only paid leave that working families need.

More paid parental leave is in order

When critical or terminal illness strikes, what protections exist to ensure a breadwinner doesn’t lose their job or suffer catastrophic financial loss caring for a critically ill or dying family member? According to the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association, nearly one-quarter (23 per cent) of Canadians cared for a family member or close friend with a serious health condition in the previous year – 41 per cent of whom had to rely on personal savings. Changes to federal law, also announced in 2017, provide job security and up to 26 weeks of leave at as much as 55 per cent of average pay to provide end-of-life, compassionate care to a loved one. But given the uncertain prognosis of many diseases how many actually find this amount adequate?

We all dream of happy families. Sadly, some have far simpler dreams of not living in violence. Leave specifically designed to help victims of domestic violence get the legal and other supports they and their children need has become recognized as vital, even if it is rarely used. Australia is a leader in this area. In 2016, the Australian state of Victoria provided public-sector employees up to 20 days of paid family violence leave. Last year, Canada announced it would provide federally-regulated workers in the private sector 10 days domestic violence leave, only half of it paid. My union and others that represent government employees are currently negotiating our own domestic violence leave provisions.

There should be no more sympathetic advocate for more paid parental leave than the government that announced extending it. The glaring absence of any increased EI benefit is a significant shortcoming of the government’s current policy.

It’s important to remember that the government’s recent parsimonious extension of parental leave has occurred at a time when the public service continues to undergo tremendous disruption due to the failed Phoenix pay system. Try raising a family on a paycheque you can’t be certain will be there. It’s caused some of my members to postpone the whole idea of raising a family.

'I can honestly say fighting cancer was easier than fighting Phoenix'

And those who do have stories to tell. Many focus on the shortages of leave to care for ill or dying family members – the new mother whose sudden debilitating illness requires that her partner use up all his leave to care for the family, the life partner with Stage Four cancer and a few months to live, the child with life-threatening allergies or the one who requires surgery and extensive post-op care, the parent with dementia. These real challenges have been made all the harder by the habitual failures of the Phoenix pay system to reliably pay people – like the member who went through maternity leave without any pay at all. As one member remarked about her own struggles with Phoenix while fighting to care for herself, “I can honestly say fighting cancer was easier than fighting Phoenix.”

Remember, these are employees of the federal public service, which offers better pay and benefits than many if not most Canadian workplaces – thanks, in part, to strong unions.

That’s why one of the key demands of our members at the bargaining table this year is that the federal government do better as a model employer by agreeing to improve parental, compassionate care, critical illness and domestic violence leave.

If Canada is to compete on what really matters in the global economy, it should be on what matters most to working families. (It’s no coincidence that European countries with enviable parental leave provisions, most notably Sweden and Denmark, are also among the countries with the lowest levels of income inequality in the world.)

Setting a good example for other employers and jurisdictions (such as Ontario) should be no less a priority for our federal government than it is for parents struggling to raise resilient children in an age of ever-diminishing expectations. It can’t be done on last year’s budget.

Until every working Canadian parent can be assured they and their families will no longer suffer financial hardship due to unpaid time caring for a critically ill or dying family member, until parents have the top-ups to make extended parental leave the real improvement to work-life balance it was intended to be, and until domestic violence is no longer the scourge on some families that it is, Canadians will need to rely on Canada being a model employer and showing the way.

Debi Daviau is president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), which represents approximately 60,000 professionals across Canada, most of whom are employed by the federal government.

This article was originally published in the National Observer by President Debi Daviau.