As the Phoenix pay system problems go on (and on), CAPE continues to use all avenues available to defend your rights.
During the bargaining of the EC and TR collective agreements, Treasury Board and CAPE agreed that these agreements would be fully implemented 150 days after signing. This deadline came and went three months ago, on October 21, 2017, but many of our members in our TR and EC bargaining units have still not received the retroactive pay increases they are owed under their current collective agreements, or have not received accurate retroactive increases. A survey conducted by CAPE in early November 2017 confirmed this.
This inaction by the employer is a violation of Article 15 for the TR group and Article 27 for the EC group (Pay Administration) and Appendix 1 (Pay Increases) of both EC and TR collective agreements. In response, CAPE filed two policy grievances in November 2017, one for each of the EC and TR groups, to contest Treasury Board’s failure to implement the retroactive pay increases.
This inaction is also a violation of Canadian labour law. The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act requires employers to implement collective agreements by the agreed deadline, which Treasury Board has simply not done. As such, CAPE has now filed a complaint to the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board to contest the employer’s clear violation of the legislation.
In doing so, CAPE is putting all possible pressure on the employer via the Treasury Board to solve the Phoenix problems and pay our members what they are owed – plus damages – as quickly as possible. It’s time to show the government that a blatant violation of the law won’t be tolerated by our members.
We will keep you updated on new developments with these complaints as they arise.
For more information on Phoenix and how we can help, please visit the Phoenix section of our website.
