The SP bargaining team met with the Treasury Board in early October, and so far progress is good.
From October 4 to 6, your bargaining team met face to face with the Treasury Board to continue the process of negotiations.
If you recall, we met the Treasury Board in early September to go through each side’s initial proposals (see Treasury Board proposal and SP Group proposal).
This meeting continued the exploratory process. Each side had answers and clarifications to questions brought up during our initial meeting.
While it would be easy to assume we know why something was proposed, there is always a risk when you assume. It’s important to have a fulsome discussion to ensure complete (or as close as you can get) understanding.
Each side shared the priorities and goals that underpin their positions. Treasury Board’s priorities can be found in their book of proposals:
● Preserve and enhance management authorities to continue to effectively and efficiently meet operational requirements
● Enhance flexibilities with regards to hours of work provisions
● Support pay administration simplification
● Address departmental operating priorities
Similarly, your SP Bargaining Team has a list of priorities that we are focusing on, based on the results of our bargaining surveys:
● Pay
○ I don’t think I need to explain why this is a priority!
● Telework
○ We are striving to improve access to telework, remote work and hybrid work.
● Work-life balance
○ We are striving to improve your work life balance through flexible work hours, the right to disconnect, and premiums for specific situations.
● Time off
○ Time off is important and vital to recharge your physical, mental and emotional batteries. We are striving to improve leaves such as vacation, family, caregiving, personal leave, leaves for religious or cultural observances and Indigenous practices.
● Mental health
○ As we enter the 958th day of the pandemic (or that’s what it feels like), it’s quite clear that mental health is now a priority for a significant proportion of our members. We are striving to support your mental health by seeking improvements in sick leave, time off, the right to disconnect, flexible work hours, and telework, as well as ensuring workspaces are free from harassment.
Your bargaining team will be meeting in the beginning of November to continue working on our pay proposal, and we will be meeting with the Treasury Board again in the beginning of December. So far, progress is good, your bargaining team is excited to be getting the work done, and we are gelling really well as a team.
We have also learned a couple of things:
- When someone says “be careful, that pepper is really hot,” believe them
- There are some really, really creepy hallways in the basement of the Lord Elgin Hotel
As a reward for reading all of this:
Ollie (Marcel’s Yorkie) after a long day of work
