Question Period Note: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Is this the right time for the government to be negotiating new collective agreements for public servants?

• The Government of Canada remains committed to reaching agreements with all bargaining agents that are fair to employees, mindful of today’s economic and fiscal context and reasonable for Canadians.
• Subject to ratification, we have concluded collective agreements covering nearly 80 percent of public servants for this round of bargaining.
• We have also participated fully in the work of Public Interest Commissions where negotiations have led us to that step.
• Recognizing the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the economy, and uncertainty in the economic outlook, recent tentative agreements cover a three-year period, rather than the four-year period of agreements reached prior to July 2020.
• Economic increases in the first two years of these tentative agreements are reflective of the relatively strong economic environment in 2018 and 2019, while a lower economic increase was agreed to for the third year of the agreements, recognizing the reduced economic growth expected for 2020 and early 2021.
• We continue to take constructive steps to advance negotiations while taking our economic reality into account.

Tentative Agreements
• Between July and September 4, 2020, the Government concluded ten tentative agreements in the context of the 2018 round of bargaining. If ratified, the government will have reached 45 agreements with groups covering close to 216,000 employees or nearly 80% of public servants in the core public administration (CPA) and separate agencies.
• All tentative agreements include pattern economic increases, new provisions for caregiver leave, extended parental leave, up to 10 days of paid leave for domestic violence and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the implementation of collective agreements.
• The unions will unanimously recommend the ratification of these tentative agreements to their members. The ratification process is expected to be completed in September/October 2020.
Signed Collective Agreements
• To date, the government has signed 35 agreements with groups covering more than 70,000 employees, or approximately one quarter of the population in the CPA and separate agencies.
• TBS officials have signed 18 agreements with groups covering more than 53,000 employees, or approximately 25% of the population in the CPA.
• Six separate agencies have signed 17 agreements with groups representing more than 17,000 employees, or approximately 28% of the population in separate agencies.

• Negotiations with most bargaining agents have been ongoing since 2018 and TBS, as the employer, continues to have a duty to bargain in good faith with all bargaining agents. To date, the government has reached 45 agreements that cover nearly 216,000 or 80 per cent of federal public service employees.

• Negotiations with the Border Services (FB) group, represented by the Public Services Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the Correctional Services (CX) group, represented by UCCO-SACC-CSN, and RCMP members and reservists represented by the National Police Federation are ongoing. In addition, negotiations are ongoing between the PSAC and seven separate agencies, including the National Capital Commission (NCC) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

• As well, a Public Interest Commission process was conducted for the IT professionals (CS group) represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC). A PIC report for this group was released in September 2020 and is favourable to the government’s current bargaining strategy. The parties plan on returning to the negotiation table in late October 2020.