Audit, Financial and Scientific Group
AUDIT, FINANCIAL AND SCIENTIFIC (AFS) GROUP 2023 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The AFS Group Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 10, 2023 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, QC (virtual and in-person). The AFS Group By-Laws provide for eighty-two (82) delegates including the eleven (11) members of the AFS Group Executive. The remaining seventy-one (71) official delegates are allocated on the basis of population by region and chosen by the Regional Representatives.
From March 7 – 9, our AFS bargaining team met with the employer to continue negotiations for the renewal of our collective agreement.
The week started with good news, the employer agreed to provide more complete member information to PIPSC which will help us keep in touch with our membership. Progress was also made in a few areas and our AFS bargaining team continues to bargain in good faith.
At the request of the AFS Group Elections Committee as per PIPSC By-Law 17.3.2.1, the PIPSC National Elections committee is conducting the 2023 AFS Group elections to the National AFS Group Executive.
As per AFS Group By-Law 7.5.2 - the year after the year divisible by 3, elections will be held for the following Officers for a 3-year term:
Headquarters Regional AFS Representative
From January 17 to 19, our AFS Bargaining Team met with the employer to continue negotiations for the renewal of our collective agreement.
Ottawa, February 7, 2023 – The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, on behalf of its Audit Financial and Scientific (AFS) Group members, has filed a bad faith bargaining complaint against the Canada Revenue Agency. The complaint concerns the Agency’s recent decision to impose a “one-size-fits-all” return to office edict rather than continue to negotiate telework at the bargaining table.
PIPSC members and the CRA have been in negotiations since October 2022, where telework has been established as a top priority for AFS members, and where PIPSC and the employer have both exchanged proposals on the issue. Yet at the January 17-19, 2023 bargaining meeting, the CRA said it no longer had any intention of including any telework language in the collective agreement.
“You cannot just remove a core issue from the table – which has been established as a top priority for members – and call it anything other than a bad faith maneuver,” said PIPSC President Jennifer Carr. “The CRA's about-face subverts what has already been accomplished at the table and delays or even prevents the conclusion of an agreement. Keep in mind this is the same government that promised a new era of collaboration with members of the public service – but has chosen again to shut the door on negotiating, in favour of imposing a wildly unpopular edict.”
The CRA expects all of its employees to return to the office for 2 days a week as opposed to continuing to telework on a mostly full time basis, as AFS members have been doing safely and productively since March 2020.
“Given our demonstrated dedication to Canadians, public service delivery, and our employer, it would be reasonable to assume that the CRA would be willing to recognize our rights to fair consideration in telework requests,” said AFS Group Bargaining Chair, Doug Mason.
The CRA’s edict mimics the Treasury Board's December directive – a “one-size-fits-all” approach to telework that PIPSC has opposed since it was announced.
“From the beginning, we’ve been clear that bulldozing through a directive like this in the middle of bargaining doesn’t bode well for good faith negotiations, and will cause more problems than it solves,” said Carr. “The proof is now in the pudding. We are looking to the government to stop barreling towards an unnecessary confrontation and bring this issue back to the table, where it belongs.”
“The pandemic forced governments to modernize labour practices, and these practices need to be embedded into employee contracts. It protects everyone. It’s just good labour practice.”
PIPSC represents over 70,000 members across Canada, and over 14,000 AFS members employed at the CRA.
-30-
For more information: Johanne Fillion, 613-883-4900 (mobile), jfillion@pipsc.ca
From November 29 – December 1, we resumed negotiations with the employer for the renewal
of our collective agreement. To make room to focus on the key priorities of our AFS members,
we resolved over twenty editorial changes on the morning of our first day.
With that out of the way, we discussed member and steward issues. The move to virtual
reporting without electronic communications has hampered our members’ ability to access key
information and support from the union.
Your AFS Bargaining Team served notice to bargain with our employer on August 22nd, four months prior to the December 21st expiry of our collective agreement. This is the earliest date that we are allowed to do so under legislation.
We have also set our first negotiation session with the Agency on October 19th and 20th. The parties will discuss their opening bargaining demands with the goal of concluding a new contract for our AFS members.