Dear Members,
The vote for dues was in favour and passed at 76%. Thank you to the membership for your continued support of your union.
The Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday, October 15 at the RCEA Office, Stone House, building M-1B on the Montreal Road NRC campus in Ottawa. This year the location and format will be changed, so that all members will have the opportunity to participate in the meeting, either by attending in person or by conference call in. AGM notification, agenda and teleconference numbers will be sent to all members prior to the meeting. All other information required will be posted on the RCEA website. Prior to the AGM, an Open House will begin at 4 pm, where members may tour the offices, meet your RCEA staff and your local representatives. I encourage you to join us, or to call in.
Sick leave is and will continue to be a very important issue in the news and in the next rounds of collective bargaining. As you are aware, Treasury Board and Minister Tony Clement have proposed significant changes to the existing Public Service sick leave provisions. The RCEA, along with all 17 other public service unions, oppose these changes. We believe that the existing system, with some modifications, is sufficient to manage the sick leave plan at NRC. The value of outstanding sick leave across the public service, over $5.2 billion, is evidence that the claims of abuse by Treasury Board are simply not true. In a published article from the Parliamentary Budget Officer it was proven that the government’s new sick leave system would not save costs. We also believe that sick leave is an integral part of all collective agreements and any changes must be properly negotiated and not simply announced by Treasury Board President Tony Clement.
The new collective agreement language concerning salary protection in the cases of conversion was not well-defined in the new arbitral awards of June 2014. Currently a conversion exercise is happening in the AD and AS groups, therefore it was imperative that this language be precise. The RCEA went back to the arbitration board, through our legal services, and requested more clarification. The Board agreed with the RCEA and now a new article is to be included in these collective agreements as an appendix entitled Salary Protection Upon Reclassification and Conversion.
LLMCC composition and framework are still an ongoing topic with RCEA, PIPSC and NRC. We are committed to finalizing this soon.
The Public Service bargaining agents met on July 22. Topics for discussion included: bargaining updates, Federal Election in 2015, performance management, and sick leave. PSAC and PIPSC have both filed bad faith bargaining with Treasury Board, regarding sick leave information being sent to memberships which may have unduly influenced members before sitting at the bargaining tables. The next meeting is Tuesday, September 16.
Thank you
Cathie