"I hope our members know that we are working to ensure their health and safety, protecting their rights and that we’re here to listen if they do have concerns.”

Simone Zobatar has devoted years of her volunteer time to our union. Like many of us, she began contributing as a union steward after being encouraged by a member of her group’s executive.

She was then quickly appointed to the group executive as a member at large. Over the years, her confidence, skill and experience grew as she took on roles as Treasurer, Vice-President and in April 2018 was elected AFS Penticton sub group President.

A path that many PIPSC members follow, there is a place for everyone in our union’s leadership. 

“Since becoming a steward, I have had the opportunity to learn from some of our great leaders, in our regional office, our AFS group President, our national President. Collectively, I know they work countless hours for our members across the country and it’s rewarding to be a part of that. It’s rewarding to help our members find solutions for issues that may come up for them.”

Simone knows that this hard work pays off, pointing to the work and life balance that our union work has ensured. She values being able to take leave if her children are sick or have an appointment or to care for an elderly parent. 

Beyond this, in the last round of bargaining PIPSC won a new leave for a “person who stands in place.” This means that members can now access leave to care for a close friend or family member who wouldn’t have previously met the definition of family. Simone knows so many people who don’t have access to these kinds of paid leave and can’t care for the ones who mean so much to them.

As a union leader, Simone has worked hard to build strong relationships with management. These relationships allow for productive collaboration that prevent many of the issues that could arise in her workplace. Even while working from home, she will continue to prioritize this strategic approach to labour relations. 

Simone is so proud to help local members find resolution to workplace issues. The most important thing for her is to make sure that members know that we are here for them.

A Chartered Professional Accountant, Simone, works for CRA as an auditor. Her workdays are spent auditing high net worth individuals and their related entities to make sure they pay their fair share of taxes. 

She says, “an incredible amount of money leaves this country because people are avoiding paying taxes.”

Simone follows the money to figure out tax avoidance schemes. The hundreds of millions of dollars that Simone and her colleagues retrieve are used to provide the infrastructure, health care and public services Canadians deserve. 

“When you see people working hard, making a decent salary, paying more taxes than these companies that make hundreds of millions of dollars, that’s the frustrating part. We bring in hundreds of millions of tax dollars when we uncover these tax schemes. And this has a substantial impact on all Canadians,” Simone explains.

Canadians benefit from the work of public servants, Simone reminds us.

“For example, the systems that our CS Group was able to implement in order to administer pandemic benefits on such a timely basis, is second to none. They were able to get money out to people that really needed it,” she shared proudly. 

Public servants have a great impact on our economy, our social programs, our health and well-being. And that impacts the lives of everyone in our country. 

The Premier of New Brunswick wants a one-year wage freeze and three years with only a 1% annual increase for public servants.

Wages and salaries should be determined through a process of good-faith bargaining. Imposing unilateral salary rates through the legislature is a violation of our members’ Charter rights. We will work with all other bargaining agents to push back against any such attempt.

Public service workers have worked hard to see the province through this pandemic. They deserve respect and a fair deal, not a unilateral imposition of new rates of pay by the Premier.

Premier Higgs has said these cuts are in preparation for cuts in funding from the federal government however federal funding remains stable at this time. Federal leaders have repeatedly stated publicly that austerity is not the solution to COVID-19 related economic downturns.

The provincial opposition members have suggested that Premier Higgs is taking this opportunity to forward his own agenda and implement unnecessary cuts to public service wages.

A wage freeze and years with only a 1% wage increase mean that our members will be earning less over time as their incomes will not even keep up with the cost of living.

This one-year salary freeze has already been implemented for non-unionized public servants in New Brunswick.

We are working with all other bargaining agents to push back against this wage freeze.

During the first wave of the pandemic, asymptomatic hospital employees who were required to self-isolate because of a suspected COVID-19 exposure were provided leave with pay.

Now, these same hospital staff are being forced to take leave without pay or other forms of leave, like vacation.

It is abhorrent to penalize essential service workers required to self-isolate to protect the hospital workforce and their patients during a global pandemic.

PIPSC President Daviau has written to the Ontario Minister of Health, the Ontario Hospital Association and the Chief Executive Officers of the provincial health care institutions where our members work – making clear that this change in leave with pay provisions is unacceptable.

If you are an Ontario hospital worker required to self-isolate due to possible COVID-19 exposure and you are not being provided leave with pay please get in touch with us now for support.

 Get union support

At this time, leave is being evaluated on a case-by-case basis. This type of management discretion guarantees inconsistencies and inequity, adding another layer of distress for thousands of workers, mainly women, who are Canada’s first-line responders to the pandemic crisis.

This is an unacceptable way to treat essential hospital workers.

We are calling on the government to reverse this decision and find a suitable solution allowing paid leave to continue to be used by our members in these exceptionally difficult circumstances.

We will provide more information to our members as we receive responses from the Minister of Health and hospital managers.

A number of present and former Black federal public servants have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Treasury Board for anti-Black discrimination.

We stand in solidarity with these Black workers and all Black public servants. 

“We know that Black public service professionals experience discrimination at work and that’s why we support the objectives of this lawsuit and any other action that seeks justice and equity for Black federal public servants” said PIPSC President Debi Daviau. “I have instructed our legal counsel to reach out to the counsel for this lawsuit and explore how our union may be able to support this effort to end systemic anti-Black discrimination in the Federal public service.”

The class-action lawsuit argues that Black federal public servants experience systemic discrimination and specifically are excluded from career advancement and promotions. 

The lawsuit seeks damages, the implementation of a Diversity and Promotional Plan for Black Public Service Employees related to the hiring and promotion of Black employees within the public service and new policy that would require the number of Black employees to reflect the percentage of Black people in the population, at a minimum. The lawsuit also asks for a compensation fund to address the psychological suffering and financial losses of past and present Black employees.

In 2017, the federal government released “Building a Diverse and Inclusive Public Service,” the final report of the Joint Union/Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion. PIPSC actively participated in the Joint Union/Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, which consulted with over 12,000 public servants and invested over a year in drafting its report. The government has yet to implement the recommendations of the task force. 

“The federal government has acknowledged that systemic racism is prevalent in Canadian society and within government institutions, but it has yet to take action on the recommendations of the Joint Union/Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion,” said Daviau. “It’s time to end anti-Black discrimination in the government’s own hiring and promoting practices.”

PIPSC members who faced severe personal or financial impacts due to the Phoenix pay system may now be eligible to claim compensation as part of the Phoenix compensation agreement negotiated in 2019.

After 4 years of overpayments, underpayments, or zero pay paycheques, countless members have needed to take leave due to illness caused by Phoenix and have suffered significant financial losses or mental anguish. Finally, you can request compensation for all these severe personal and financial hardships.

The agreement covers individuals who were members of PIPSC between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2020 and who faced severe personal or financial hardship attributable to Phoenix pay issues during this timeframe.

What types of severe personal or financial hardship are available for compensation?

Here are the types of compensation that the government is making available to employees that faced severe impacts due to Phoenix pay issues. Complete documentation substantiating your claim is required. Most of these claims require the total value of your damages to exceed a $1,500 threshold.

You may be able to submit a claim if you experienced the following situations:

• You are a current or former employee who has a documented use of paid or unpaid leave (including sick leave) caused by illness, stemming from issues with your pay attributed to the Phoenix Pay System (the $1,500 threshold does not apply)
• You are a current or former employee who began maternity or parental leave or disability insurance and experienced a pay issue attributed to the Phoenix Pay System that led to the disruption in receipt of pay or associated benefit/entitlement (the $1,500 threshold does not apply)
• You are a current or former employee who experienced an adverse impact due to an issue with your pay stemming from the Phoenix Pay System and are alleging a discriminatory practice as defined under the Canadian Human Rights Act (the $1,500 threshold applies)
• You are a current or former employee who has a claim as a consequence of:
  • your loss of occupational capacity
  • your loss of required security clearance 
  • a significant credit rating impact 
  • bankruptcy

which is directly attributable, in whole or in part, to the Phoenix Pay problems you experienced (the $1,500 threshold applies)

• You are a former employee who has a claim related to having resigned from the public service as a consequence of a loss of income leading to financial hardship caused by the Phoenix Pay System (the $1,500 threshold applies)
• You are a current or former employee who experienced mental anguish or trauma, which interfered with your ability, to a profound degree, to lead a normal life, and which went beyond the normal distress, annoyance and anxiety suffered in the circumstances, caused in whole or in part by the Phoenix Pay System (the $1,500 threshold applies)
• You are a current or former employee who experienced other damages which disclose comparable personal hardship or impact caused in whole or in part by the Phoenix Pay System (the $1,500 threshold applies)

For more information on how to submit a claim for severe personal or financial hardship visit: pipsc.ca/news-issues/phoenix-pay-system/phoenix-compensation-make-claim-to-get-back-every-cent-you-are-owed

COVID-19 continues to put unprecedented stress on members like you. As the number of cases continues to rise across the country, balancing work and life responsibilities remains difficult. Many Canadians are now facing a new series of school and childcare closures. 

Yet, the Treasury Board has made it more difficult for members to access ‘Other Leave with Pay (Code 699),' granted in our collective agreements.

PIPSC has filed a series of policy grievances against the Treasury Board’s guidelines for the use of Code 699 – following similar actions by fellow federal public sector bargaining agents. In addition to filing these grievances, we are keeping up the pressure in consultations with the employer on weekly calls with the Treasury Board and in COVID-19 labour relations meetings. We have also written to the Minister of Finance and the Minister for the Status of Women asking for them to intervene given these changes to Code 699 we see as disproportionately impacting women and other caregivers.

In November, we surveyed our members to understand how they’ve accessed Code 699 and other types of leave to manage with caregiving responsibilities or if they cannot access their work equipment to do their job. In the preliminary results, the vast majority of our members who accessed Code 699 since the pandemic began identified that it was for childcare duties. Of those members, the majority were women. 

The Treasury Board’s new guidelines leave it up to individual managers who may force employees to exhaust other forms of leave, such as vacation, sick leave, or leave without pay, inappropriately. As our survey has found, this is a discriminatory change that will have a larger impact on women, and caregivers, in the public service. 

The pandemic continues to wreak havoc – we must ensure those who need to access it are provided with fair access. We must protect those who are vulnerable to discrimination.

Get the help you need

If you have been denied access to Code 699 or forced to use inappropriate leave such as vacation, sick leave, or leave without pay, please reach out for support: 

COVID-19 HELP FORM

President Debi Daviau met with PIPSC members from across the country on Saturday, December 5, 2020 for our Annual General Meeting. 

2020 has been a busy year for PIPSC members who built the systems to get them the money they desperately needed quickly. We helped thousands of stranded Canadians to return home. We converted laboratories to make hand sanitizer. We worked miracles to get personal protective equipment to those who needed it. We built the technical infrastructure to allow other public servants to continue their work from the safety of their homes. We’re on the frontlines in the healthcare industry. And, we pivoted to important, scientific research to find a cure for COVID-19.

In her address, President Daviau outlined our vision to fight austerity and to ensure your rights are respected with measures like the emergency leave code for absences due to COVID-19.

Note: If the video above does not load correctly, you may need to disconnect from your employer’s VPN, or try accessing this page from a personal device.

Throughout the pandemic, our collective strength has ensured that Canadians get the services they deserve. Watch our “Here for you” video and share it on social media. And internally, we’re making sure our union is representative of the needs of all our members. If you have any questions, send them to the president’s team.

Read the full text of the President’s address.