WFA Policy – In January of 2012, the RCEA, PIPS and NRC reached an agreement on a new WFA Policy. Some improvements were negotiated following extensive bargaining. This bargaining was delayed while NRC sought and received its “mandate” from the Treasury Board. Once this agreement was reached, we anticipated that the new Policy would be quickly signed and implemented. This has not happened. Despite the fact that NRC received a mandate from Treasury Board, which means that TB had to sign off on all the elements of the negotiation, NRC continues to assert that they cannot sign and implement the new policy because Treasury Board has not given them the permission to do so. We have recently been told that the new Policy has been “sitting” on the desk of the President of the Treasury Board, but that he has more pressing priorities than to approve it. We are left to wonder how a jointly bargained policy can be left to sit around for almost nine months, while Treasury Board deals with other priorities. We are also left to wonder how hard NRC has been pressing this issue. It is unreasonable and insulting to all the employees of the NRC that this has occurred.
Bargaining sessions were held in May. No agreement was reached at that time. We concluded the session by identifying to NRC our concerns and priorities and by indicating what we would like to see in a new collective agreement. We indicated our willingness to return to the bargaining table and invited NRC to get back to us when they were prepared to meaningfully discuss the issues. They have not yet gotten back to us to resume bargaining.