Treasury Board agrees to negotiate better birth control coverage for public service employees

Fellow members,

After years of advocacy, the Treasury Board has agreed to negotiate the addition of non-oral contraceptives to the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP). Currently, only oral contraceptives (the birth control pill) are covered. Along with other federal public sector unions, PIPSC has long argued that it is discriminatory for oral contraceptives only to be covered under our health plan. The change announced today speaks to what it means to have women lead the two largest federal bargaining agents. Neither of us could let this wrong continue, and we worked together to get it fixed. Our members will soon be able to choose the birth control method best suited to their needs.

PIPSC is very pleased that this long-standing injustice will finally be corrected, as it goes back many years. In 2012, bargaining agents signed an agreement to cover non-oral contraceptives but former Treasury Board President Tony Clement rejected the deal, and instead unilaterally booked $7.4 billion in savings from the health plan.

This is the beginning of the righting of this wrong, and we will continue to advocate for monies be put back into the Plan and for coverage to be extended to meet our members’ changing needs.

PIPSC, along with other unions, is in the process of negotiating with the Treasury Board a host of improvements to the PSHCP. We will be surveying members on their priorities, so please stay tuned.

As always, please feel free to share your priorities with me at president@pipsc.ca.

Better Together!

Debi Daviau
President