News & Issues

12 October 2017, Ottawa — Hundreds of public service workers are holding a rally at 12:30 pm today in front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office to send a clear message to the Liberal government: Enough is enough!

11 October 2017, Ottawa — Public service workers will be holding a rally in front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office on October 12 to tell the Liberal government that: Enough is enough! Fix Phoenix now and pay damages to workers!

October 10, 2017 is World Mental Health Day. The Institute is pleased to announce that the Mental Health Resource Guide is now available!

Radio-Canada and the CBC have reported this week that Phoenix was “doomed from the start.” The reason? The business case prepared in 2009 under the previous government “lacked proper risk analysis and was politically motivated.” In the words of former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, “You look at this business case, you can drive trucks through some of the holes under the risk analysis.”

The Institute joins its fellow National Joint Council (NJC) bargaining agents in calling for more and better consultation on the Treasury Board Policy Suite Reset, an initiative introduced in 2014 “to streamline and clarify Treasury Board policy instruments while shifting public service culture towards a focus on better service and results.”

The Institute’s submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance regarding the 2018-19 Pre-Budget Consultation is now available online.

In light of the Phoenix fiasco and as part of a commitment made to bargaining agents to make it easier for their members to obtain information about their pay, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSCPC) has just released its Pay Bulletin for September.

The Institute has just filed two new policy grievances on Phoenix-related issues, accusing the Treasury Board of failing to implement the terms of the AV and SP Group collective agreements within the specified timeframe (120 and 90 days respectively).

While much has been reported about the impact of the Phoenix pay system on current federal employees, comparatively little has been said about the harm done to retirees.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), which represents approximately 15,000 federal scientists, engineers and researchers, welcomes the announcement of Dr. Mona Nemer as Chief Science Advisor.

At the request of the Union-Management Consultation Committee (UMCC), the Professional Institute, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Association of Justice Counsel and the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers have formed a Sub-Committee to develop a framework for the payme

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Don’t just take our word for it. Ask the experts who just published the International Civil Service Effectiveness (InCiSE) Index 2017. Canada’s public servants are number one!

The triennial Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) has been released and government employees have until September 29, 2017 to complete the questionnaire.

For Immediate Release Labour Day 2017: Labouring to Fix Phoenix

PIPSC members are invited to participate in the following Canadian Labour Congress Labour Day events: Atlantic Region:

Summer may be coming to an end but the problems with Phoenix continue to plague public servants. Although it would be overly optimistic to suggest a fix is imminent, we are seeing some progress.

To our members at the Department of National Defence (DND),

Recently, I sent an opinion piece to the Globe and Mail about our members’ ongoing problems with the Phoenix pay system and what I consider to be one of the root causes of the debacle: outsourcing.

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While the current government has been right to criticize the last one for laying off hundreds of compensation staff before it rolled out Phoenix, it’s the decisions around outsourcing such projects in the first place that demand a rethink.

I am pleased to report that our initiative to recruit and train CSs to work on Phoenix is making good progress.  I made a strong case for building the government’s in-house capacity at my recent meeting with the Cabinet Committee of Ministers tasked with fixing the beleaguered Phoenix pay system.

 

Ordinarily, the announcement earlier this month that spending by the Department of Defence (DND) will grow from its current $18.9 billion to $32.7 billion by 2026 would be cause for Canadians (and especially PIPSC members employed by DND) to feel more secure.

From the 55,000 professionals across Canada’s federal and provincial public sectors who proudly serve Canadians every day and the union that represents them, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, a happy 150th birthday to the greatest country in the world!

Last week I was invited to speak with the cabinet-level working group on Phoenix to discuss potential solutions to the Phoenix pay system. I brought to them a number of problems and possible solutions to help fix the disastrous Phoenix pay system. Public servants are still facing hardship and ongoing problems and we all desperately want to see relief and a solution soon.

June is National Aboriginal History month and June 21st, National Aboriginal Day, is a special moment to celebrate First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada.

"Taylor and Gibbs: A big step forward for Canada's federal scientists" published in the Ottawa Citizen on June 14, 2017

The recent recommendations of yet another consultants’ report on Shared Services Canada (SSC) demonstrate that, when it comes to federal government outsourcing, there’s no shortage of private sector advice.

Next week, June 11-17, is National Public Service Week (NPSW). Since 1992 it’s been an occasion to recognize and celebrate the contributions Canada’s public service professionals make to society. The Professional Institute supports this celebration of our members’ accomplishments. In fact, we first proposed it.

A new report commissioned by Shared Services Canada (SSC) shows that the Institute is right in highlighting the dangers of outsourcing in the federal government.

On June 1, 2017, the Joint Union-Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion presented a

“Today’s update by Deputy Minister Lemay indicates that the government has again failed to plan ahead -- this time for entirely predictable increases in the numbers of employee payroll adjustments needed to implement new collective agreements,” said PIPSC Vice President Steve Hindle.

The announcement this week that the federal government will temporarily hire an additional 200 staff, invest a further $142 million over three years, and introduce even more measures to expedite fixing Phoenix is welcome, if long overdue, news.

PIPSC is proud to announce that its Head Office building located at 250 Tremblay Road in Ottawa is the recipient of a Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada BOMA BEST Silver certification, which recognizes excellence in energy and environmental mana

DATE – November 17-18, 2017 LOCATION – NCR, Gatineau, QC