News - July 2005                     Previous Month         Following Month

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

A PSC consolidation of District Offices - Work Force Adjustment's

'reasonable job offer' to apply to surplus positions

Great news as mediation draws a close to CFIA PI Review

Government yields to pressure, reverses closure decision

on four AAFC research facilities

PSC consolidation of District Offices - Work Force Adjustment's 'reasonable job offer' to apply to surplus positions

(Posted July 29, 2005)

The Public Service Commission held meetings with its employees and the Agriculture Union on July 26 to announce its decision to consolidate 16 current points of service into seven regional locations - Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa.

The restructure of services will result in the closure of nine PSC District Offices. They are: Victoria, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Iqualuit, Regina, Québec City, Moncton, Charlottetown and St-John's. The closure of these district offices will have a significant impact on a number of our members in that they will be declared surplus. There will also be cuts in the current regional offices and at central administration.

The closures will happen gradually over the next two to three years and, as a result, approximately 94 PSC employees throughout Canada will be declared surplus. To date, we have been advised that 43 PSAC members will be declared surplus.

The PSC has committed to provide all surplus employees with a Guarantee of a Reasonable Job Offer in accordance with the provisions of the Work Force Adjustment Appendix (WFAA). The PSC has expressed its commitment:

• to inform employees as decisions are made;
• to treat them in a fair and equitable manner;
• to provide employees with recourse to Work Force Adjustment and provide a reasonable job offer;
• to consider the interests of surplus employees in positions located in another regions and provide relocation assistance; and,
• to provide retraining assistance.

Surplus employees are not eligible for a cash-out because they have been provided with a GUARANTEE OF A REASONABLE JOB OFFER.

According to the Employee Guide on Restructuring of the Services Branch of the PSC 2005/06 , the definition of 'Reasonable Job Offer' is as follows: "A reasonable job offer is an offer of indeterminate employment within the Public Service, normally at an equivalent level but could include lower levels. Surplus employees must be both trainable and mobile."

The following two charts - mobility criteria and definitions of 'local', 'regional' and 'national' - will help guide the determination of what will constitute a reasonable job offer. Any position offered to a surplus individual within the mobility criteria will be considered a reasonable job offer. Refusal to accept a reasonable job offer will result in a layoff within the timeframes prescribed in the Workforce Adjustment.

MOBILITY CRITERIA

DEFINITIONS FOR 'LOCAL', 'REGIONAL' AND 'NATIONAL'

Local            Within the employee's headquarters as defined in the Directive; for positions located in Ottawa,

                      includes the National Capital Region.

Regional Regions are defined as follows:

• British Columbia and Yukon;
• Alberta and Northwest Territories;
• Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nunavut;
• Ontario excluding the National Capital Region;
• Québec excluding the National Capital Region; and
• Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

National            All positions anywhere in Canada.

We recommend that you complete the forms to register on the list of priorities as quickly as possible in order to maximize your chances of obtaining suitable employment.

Union representatives will provide you with all the help available, and will be vigilant in seeing that each of our members is treated equitably.

Don't hesitate to contact your local, regional and national union representatives.

Great news as mediation draws a close to CFIA PI Review

(Posted July 18, 2005)

There's great news for our members who have weathered the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's PI Review. Renewed mediation sessions, held this month and last, have all but completed the job description process!

Agreement was reached on generic job descriptions for two last groups:

• PM-02 Point of Entry Import Inspector (decision no. 20177); and
• EG-05- Commodity Technical Specialist (decision no. 20179).

At this time, only one job description needs to be resolved - that of EG-03 - Plant Program Inspector (decision no. 20133). We have a tentative settlement but it is subject to the employer's review of one aspect of the job description. A further mediation session may or may not be required to 'put this one to bed'.

CFIA is also reviewing two unique job descriptions. These are related to the specific individuals in these positions, and will have no impact on other job descriptions.

While the PI Review grievances were filed years ago, our decision in 2003 to make use of the new mediation process turned out to be a wise one. Mediation has allowed us to obtain our objectives in a more expeditious fashion.

Finally, there's even more good news. We are optimistic that by this coming autumn all generic job descriptions will be in the classification process. Once the classification process is complete, all grievors will receive their new job description and classification, indicating where changes have been made.

Government yields to pressure, reverses closure decision on four AAFC research facilities

(Posted July 6, 2005)

Bowing to pressure from Agriculture Union members and their supporters in the general community, the federal government has reversed an earlier decision to close four agriculture research facilities.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada had previously announced that science centres in Nappan, St. John's , Kapuskasing and Winnipeg were to close as a cost-savings measure.

AAFC now says no closures will occur before the completion of further consultation around the federal government's agriculture science strategy. This will involve discussions with communities, stakeholders, industry representatives, provincial and territorial governments, universities and research institutes to identify key priorities and suggest strategies to maximize current agriculture science investments.

Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell was put under considerable political pressure not to close the four facilities. As an example, Agriculture Union members ran an aggressive fight-back campaign to save the 140-year-old Nappan facility, in Nova Scotia . They were backed by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Cumberland County Federation of Agriculture and the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.

A May 29 community rally drew hundreds of participants and received wide media coverage throughout the province. Thousands more signed a Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture petition calling on the Liberal government to stop the Nappan closure.

Our members are to be congratulated for the strong action they took to safeguard valuable public services and jobs. The Agriculture Union will continue to work to oppose such closures as the consultation process unfolds.