From May 26 to June 1, 2019, let’s celebrate National AccessAbility Week!
PIPSC is committed to working with our members and employers to create workplaces that are inclusive and barrier free. As proud PIPSC members, every one of us has a role to play in actively identifying and removing barriers that prevent any member from fully participating in all workplace activities and fulfilling their personal and professional dreams.
We value the diversity of the Canadian population and the unique talents and strengths that are inherent in a diverse workforce. It is a time to make a commitment to promote accessibility and inclusion in our workplace, and celebrate the talents and contributions of our members with disabilities.
Please do not hesitate to contact me, or any member of the HR&DC if you have any suggestions to making our workplaces more accessible and inclusive!
In collaboration with colleagues in the HR Diversity and Employment Equity team, an inclusive working group of players across Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) came together. Representatives from the Employment Equity team, the Labour Relations team, employee unions, and the departmental PRIDE network developed the guide, Support for Trans Employees: A Guide for Employees and Managers (currently unavailable).
The purpose of this guide is to provide a safe, respectful and inclusive work environment for all employees, including trans and gender variant employees.
PIPSC’s Gordon Bulmer, a member of the working group, said that this work illustrates that "the Government of Canada can be a leader in social justice, not just a follower." The guide has received a Public Service Award of Excellence and is considered to be the beginning of a movement within the public service.
We celebrate this important step forward and are proud of our members who contributed their energy, expertise and passion to this project. Trans members deserve to thrive in their public service workplaces!
Ottawa, May 28, 2019 - PIPSC members have successfully negotiated with the Treasury Board to secure a 7% wage increase over the next 4 years.
“Our members give their best to Canada and to their families. We went into these negotiations to get a deal that acknowledges and supports this,” said PIPSC President Debi Daviau. “We’ve made progress on parental leave and we’ve secured pay increases that reflect the growing cost of living. This agreement will improve our members’ lives.”
The agreement includes a historic win with 10 paid days of leave for survivors of domestic violence. “We want to make sure the workplace is not a barrier to survivors seeking support when facing domestic violence. This measure is a significant step in that direction,” said Daviau.
Parental leave top-up has expanded by five weeks and is now equitable for adoptive parents.
The union has also secured language on harassment that for the first time in Canadian public service enshrines the right of a worker to a workplace free of harassment and violence.
The agreement secures PIPSC collaboration with Treasury Board on replacing Phoenix, financial penalties for late contract implementation and retroactive pay.
“Our members have led the way on scientific integrity, contracting out, tax fairness and replacing Phoenix. With this agreement we are now making historic progress to end workplace harassment and secure measures on domestic violence,” said Daviau. “Our membership is focused, knowledgeable and engaged – that’s how we get results.”
PIPSC occupational groups for Audit, Commerce & Purchasing (AV), Audit, Financial and Scientific – CRA (AFS), and Applied Science and Patent Examination Group (SP) have secured these measures in their group-specific tentative agreements. Other PIPSC groups will get to do the same, once they reach tentative agreements at their negotiation tables.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada represents 60,000 public service professionals across Canada.
PIPSC Vice-President Norma Domey in Winnipeg with CLC President Hassan Yussuf
Labour leaders from across the country gathered in Winnipeg last week for the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Canadian Council and to mark the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike.
The over 35,000 Winnipeg public and private workers who united to send a clear message to employers and to governments in May 1919, were acknowledged and celebrated! They went on strike for six weeks in order to win better wages and the right to collective bargaining.
To honour this powerful legacy of the Canadian labour movement, the CLC premiered its new film Stand!.Stand! tells the story of the Winnipeg 1919 strike and how workers overcame cultural and gender division to organize and win together – some relevant lessons for today’s struggles.
Treasury Board and Commissioner Lucki want to move RCMP Civilian Members to the failed Phoenix payroll system. President Debi Daviau has written to the Commissioner to make our opposition to this plan clear.
After three years of fighting for our members who are suffering under Phoenix, there is no reason for RCMP Civilian Members to be exposed to the same problems.
Now is the time for you to add your voice.
Email Commissioner Lucki
Please take action immediately. Email Commissioner Lucki and let her know that you do not want to be paid through the failed Phoenix system. We are pushing for the only logical alternative — delay deeming and remain with the current pay system.
We need every Civilian Member across the country to participate, so please encourage your colleagues to send this email now.
Launch of new Federal Public Service Workplace Accommodations Study, May 6 to 24, 2019
Dear colleagues,
The Office of Public Service Accessibility at Treasury Board Secretariat is conducting a study of existing workplace accommodation practices in the federal public service. Its objective is to identify common experiences, best practices and opportunities to remove barriers and improve workplace accessibility. Information gathered from this study will provide a baseline that can be used to measure progress as improvements are delivered over time.
The first phase of this study is a survey intended for current federal public servants who requested a workplace accommodation for themselves or for one of their employees in the past 3 years. Between May 6 and May 24, employees and supervisors can provide their comments directly through this online survey or review the questions in an accessible Word format and respond by email at accessibility.accessibilite@tbs-sct.gc.ca. Links to the online survey and accessible versions are available on the OPSA GCPedia page, using a Federal Government computer. If you are not able to use the link, you can also use the MS Word version of the survey (attached) and send your completed survey by email to accessibility.accessibilite@tbs-sct.gc.ca
The PIPSC Human Rights and Diversity Committee (HRDC) is committed to helping build awareness about accessibility issues and promoting an inclusive and welcoming work environment where all public servants can thrive. We encourage all PIPSC members to participate in this study. Please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the HR&DC if you have any questions or comments.
A report released yesterday from the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) confirms what we have been saying since November 2018 – Phoenix must be replaced and a new system can be cost effective.
Throwing good money after bad is not a viable strategy. Continuing to give money to companies like IBM to patch a broken system has to have an end date. Had the previous government listened to the advice of its own public service professionals, we could have avoided the Phoenix mess altogether. So much unnecessary pain and suffering has been caused to Canada's public service employees, and so much financial loss to all Canadians.
The costs of the current Phoenix pay system have skyrocketed due to cascading mistakes made throughout the outsourcing of the project development and rollout.
But looking at past mistakes isn't enough.
The government is currently in the process of identifying a replacement to the pay system and PIPSC is proud to be a leader in that process. We believe that if the new pay project is done free of ideology and in consultation with public servants, the cost will be reasonable. Although the PBO report does not factor in all that needs to be considered in new integrated HR-to-Pay system, it does demonstrate the urgent need for a new system.
We are pushing for the new pay project to move forward as quickly as possible and Treasury Board has indicated a pilot of the new NextGen HR-to-Pay system will be launched this fall.
I will be pushing the federal government to make a clear monetary commitment before the federal election so that work can continue on the NextGen HR-to-Pay project. Moving quickly on building a new pay system needs to be seen for what it is, a win-win-win situation, for public service employees, the Federal Government, and Canadian tax payers.
It might surprise some people that PIPSC counts registered nurses among its members. Not Valerie Emery though – she’s one of
those nurses.
Valerie never knows what her day will be like when she walks through the door to work. As a registered nurse in the ER at Whitehorse General Hospital, every day is different. “In a 12-hour shift you meet many people that might have sore throats, broken bones, or a motor vehicle accident. The variety of the care that you provide to patients is what makes the job so interesting,” Valerie says.
Valerie has worked at the hospital for almost ten years, but has been in the ER for just over a year. Growing up she always knew she wanted to be a nurse. With her mother and godmother both being nurses, she knew what she was getting into.
“I feel very fortunate that I always knew I wanted to be a nurse, so right from high school I was able to direct my career towards that.”
Valerie sees it as a tremendous privilege to be able to take care of people. “In the emergency room, people come in and it’s the worst day of their lives. So just meeting them where they’re at and being able to help them through their crisis for the day…it gives me joy to be able to do that for them and their families.”
While she loves the variety of the work, juggling competing demands is also the biggest challenge in the job, “It can be very chaotic and you have to constantly change your priorities when new patients arrive in the ER," she says. "The person you are working with is not necessarily the priority anymore so you have to continually redirect your care.”
When a patient comes through the hospital doors, one of the first people they see is an RN who triages them and decides how urgent their care needs are. With only one or two doctors in the Whitehorse ER department, it’s often nurses who provide much of the care. Valerie worries about having enough nurses to provide patients with the safe care they need and deserve. “We’re pushed to our limits of how many patients we have and we’re just bare bones caring for some of these patients, I’m afraid. If we had more staff we could really, really give safe, quality patient care. We really need more nursing staff to give complete care,” she says.
Being a nurse in the North brings the additional challenge of not having all the services and specialists often needed to provide patient care. You need to have much broader skills, wear many hats, and be ready to move the patient to a larger centre.
“If a patient comes in to the emergency room and they’re having a heart attack, you may need to start communicating with your team right away to get the patient a flight to a tertiary care centre to save that patient’s life."
But for Valerie, she’s perfectly happy nursing in a smaller hospital and community. While studying nursing in Victoria she had the opportunity to do a practicum in Whitehorse. She took it and two years later made Whitehorse her home.
“Working in a small community you can be exposed to and move to many different areas, whereas I’d never be able to do that in a bigger centre. In my time here, I’ve been able to work in the ICU, the ER, the recovery
room and day surgery. You have so much room to grow in your profession.”
“And I fell in love with the midnight sun,” she says, laughing.
On May 15, 1919, over 35,000 Winnipeg public and private workers united to send a clear message to employers and to governments: they would strike in order to win better wages and the right to collective bargaining.
Workers overcame cultural and gender divisions to organize and effectively shut down the entire city of Winnipeg for six weeks while maintaining key services. Women were at the forefront – among the first workers to walk off the job.
While the strike was eventually broken and many of its leaders were imprisoned or deported, it left a legacy of labour law reforms that redefined fair and safe work across the country.
We have a far stronger social safety net than those workers could have ever dreamed of. We have universal health care, minimum wages, old age pensions, and employment insurance. We have maternity leave, weekends, health and safety standards, due in part to their sacrifices.
With a changing economic landscape that continues to threaten certain industries and create whole new ones, the key lesson from the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike must be for workers to overcome fear and division to unionize and safeguard their rights.
Canada’s unions are proud of the contributions they have made to raise the bar for everyone. We are committed to advocating on behalf of all working families – for universal pharmacare, pay equity, better pensions, safer workplaces, and much more.
But if history has taught us anything, it’s that we need every worker to stand up and be counted.
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is asking for our support. The current parliamentary session will end mid-June and the AFN is asking us to sign three crucial petitions.
When passed, Bill C-262 will be a commitment from the federal government to act in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Bill C-91 will create the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages to protect and promote the fifty-eight distinct languages and ninety dialects in Canada. Languages are central to First Nations’ identities, cultures, spirituality, histories, and self-determination.
Canada must address the thousands of First Nations children taken from their families and placed in government care. Bill C-92 aims to protect First Nations children by prioritizing prevention over apprehension and ensuring children are kept in their homes or communities whenever possible.
President Debi Daviau has signed the petitions, please take the time now to add your support. These important pieces of legislation must be addressed before the parliamentary session ends. If not, this work will be lost and new bills will need to be introduced after the next federal election – a major setback on these issues.
