Your Bargaining Team was looking forward to meeting with OSFI in February and March to commence bargaining. Unfortunately OSFI is not ready to discuss and negotiate our group’s proposals, as OSFI indicated they had not yet received a mandate and direction from Treasury Board. Therefore, our tentatively scheduled bargaining dates for February and March have been canceled.
The cancelation of the March dates is the third delay that we have experienced, thus far. As you will recall, we were tentatively scheduled to exchange proposals with the Employer on January 15, 2019, and this date was also canceled by the Employer.
We do have tentative dates scheduled April 15 to 17, 2019, and are working to schedule additional dates as soon as possible. We have been advised by OSFI that they are expecting a mandate from Treasury Board forthwith. PIPSC has also confirmed with Treasury Board that the process is in place for separate employers to obtain their mandates from Treasury Board.
We are certainly concerned by these delays, as our members continue to work under an expired Collective Agreement and should not have to wait multiple years for a resolution! We appreciate this issue extends beyond OSFI and across the federal public sector, as there has been very limited progress within any of the Treasury Board groups. We continue to work with the leaders of the other PIPSC Groups to ensure the government engages in fair and timely negotiations with our Union.
Representatives from the eighteen (18) groups under the Treasury Board, including OSFI, have joined forces to negotiate common issues at a central bargaining table. Common issues that PIPSC has presented at the central table include: pay rules, family leave, workplace harassment, family day, duration of agreement and economic increase. The Central Bargaining Team for PIPSC Treasury Board groups will be meeting again with Treasury Board March 26-28, 2019. Updates from Central Bargaining are posted on the PIPSC website at: https://www.pipsc.ca/labour-relations/collective-bargaining
We are encouraging members to join the PIPSC Do Better campaign, to support the efforts of your Bargaining Team and Union. You can sign up online at: https://action.pipsc.ca/dobetter
Better Together!
Paul van Gurp
OSFI Group Bargaining Team President
Bargaining Process Summary:
Survey Members – Complete
Member Focus Groups –Complete
Information Submitted by Individual Members – Complete
Finalize Non-Pay Proposals – Complete
Develop Pay Proposals - Underway
Exchange Proposals with Employer – Canceled by Employer
Negotiations to Achieve Tentative Agreement
- Tentatively scheduled to commence February 26 to 28 – Canceled by Employer
- Tentative Negotiation Dates March 19 to 21 – Canceled by Employer
- Next scheduled meeting dates April 15 to 17, 2019
Should an Impasse in Negotiations Occur - Proceed to Binding Conciliation - If necessary
Tentative Agreement - Goal
Bargaining Unit Membership Ratification Vote - after Tentative Agreement is reached