Half of Public Service Alliance of Canada members set to vote on strike mandate

The Public Service Alliance of Canada has announced strike votes for 120,000 federal public servants in the coming weeks.

Strike votes for members in the Program and Administrative Services, Technical Services and Education and Library Science bargaining groups will take place from Nov. 16 to Jan. 22 next year. Those groups make up about half of PSAC’s total membership.

PSAC said in a news release that the strike vote is in response to “Treasury Board’s insulting wage proposal, push for concessions, and refusal to address critical workplace issues.”

“We want to negotiate a fair deal, but by pushing pay cuts and refusing to discuss any of our key issues, Treasury Board has given us no choice but to take strike votes,” Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president, said in a news release.

PSAC said that dates, locations and registration details for information and voting session will be provided on Oct. 28.

“Members will receive an email containing their voting credentials,” the news release said.

Bargaining has been slow moving amid the most significant public service cuts in more than a decade.

The federal government’s spending review is set to slash billions in spending across most departments and agencies over the next several years.

Bargaining is now happening in the shadow of those cuts, raising questions about how much the federal government is willing to offer in wage increases, as it wrestles with spending to fulfil a promise of balancing the government’s operating budget.

Wages, among other personnel spending, fall under the federal government’s operating budget.

In April, PSAC said that they received wage offers with averages less than one per cent per year, which PSAC has called “a clear pay cut.”

PSAC is also pointing to several concessions including removing workforce adjustments and the dental care plan from collective bargaining, expanding the normal daily work-hour window and increasing management discretion and control.

Now, months of cuts, workforce adjustments and a public service in flux could leave public servants disgruntled enough to act on a strike vote

The controversial move to send public servants four days a week in the office has also compounded frustrations of the federal government’s workforce.

Federal public servants were sent back to the office four days a week in July, while executives have been working five days a week in office since May.

However, PSAC did not mention remote work in their strike vote news release.

The federal government has maintained in-office directive be the exclusive decision of management, while admitting it was a “philosophical choice” by the employer to mandate four days a week in office, rather than a specific study, according to Bill Matthews, the secretary of the Treasury Board.

PSAC represented Bank of Canada security guards have been on the picket line since late June, while the Bank refusing to retract a concession on scheduling rights, which the Bank says will help them lower costs amid budget cuts.

It’s a question if the Bank of Canada labour dispute is a sign for things to come on how Treasury Board will bargain under the weight of budget constrictions.

The Treasury Board of Canada did not immediately return request for comment.