News - November 2009          Previous Month        Following Month

Headlines of the current month's news items are listed immediately below. Click on the headline of your choice to see the entire text of the article.

CFIA members asked to put grievances from our campaign for

a neutral classification system in abeyance

Update – AAFC GL Review

PSAC 2010 calendars now being distributed through PSAC Regional Offices

Latest joint CFIA National Occupational Safety and Health Policy Committee

minutes now available

CFIA members asked to put grievances from our campaign for a neutral classification system in abeyance

(Posted November 17, 2009)

“Put your grievances in abeyance.”

That’s the message the Agriculture Union is sending to our members at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as CFIA has agreed to consider a new classification system.

Earlier this year, a grievance campaign was launched in an attempt to force CFIA to implement the results of a historic pay equity ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, including the development of a gender-neutral classification system.

Last July, we upped the ante by providing an opportunity for our CFIA members to send a protest e-mail directly to their Member of Parliament.

All that hard grassroots work has now paid off, with CFIA management agreeing to strike a joint committee to look at overhauling a gender-biased classification system that has seen the wage gap in predominantly-female jobs widen dramatically over time.

The committee will be meeting in the new year. Agriculture Union representatives on the committee are National President Bob Kingston, First National Executive Vice-President Deborah Forsythe and Ottawa Local 67 President Marlene O’Neil. They will be assisted both by Bob Lamoureux, a PSAC Classification Officer and an Agriculture Union Service Officer.

In the meantime, all campaign grievances will be put in abeyance at their current level pending the outcome of the committee’s work.

Update – AAFC GL Review

(Posted November 16, 2009)

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is now in the process of fine-tuning the mapping-to-job descriptions.  Some steps may have been missed during the process; therefore, some on-site visits are being scheduled in order to evaluate a number of the identified discrepancies. 

AAFC is also experiencing some difficulties in establishing the ‘effective date’ to be used for determining retroactive pay.  The Agriculture Union’s position, which we clearly communicated to the Department, is that the effective date should be the same as for the EG Review: April 1, 2003. In addition, some IT problems need to be addressed.

A communiqué from the employer will be going out to our members with a timeline description of the subsequent steps to be taken.

AAFC’s target date to complete the GL Review – excluding the Agri-Environment Services Branch (AESB) – is the end of the fiscal year.

Agri-Environment Services Branch (AESB)

Work descriptions from our members in this Branch have been received in the Agriculture Union National Office. A committee of members from the GL category was struck to analyze the job descriptions.  We will be providing our comments to AAFC by the end of this December.

PSAC 2010 calendars now being distributed through PSAC Regional Offices

(Posted November 13, 2009)

Around this time of year, many members are looking to receive the popular annual calendar produced by our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

This year, the calendars are being distributed to Agriculture Union Locals by PSAC Regional Offices across the country. They should now be available for distribution to your membership.

However, to ensure receipt of the calendars in sufficient quantities, Locals should get in touch with their closest PSAC Regional Office to arrange for delivery or pick-up. A list of contact information for these Offices can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Latest joint CFIA National Occupational Safety and Health Policy Committee minutes now available

(Posted November 10, 2009)

The Agriculture Union on September 30 met with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for a regular meeting of the joint National Occupational Safety and Health Policy Committee

The minutes from that Committee meeting are now available on our Web site and can be viewed by clicking HERE.