The Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) urged its members to reject the new tentative agreement with the government. It wants higher wage increases and the option to work from home.. Chris Aylward PSAC .The CEIU represents a third of the 120,000 striking Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members, who returned to work on Tuesday..CEIU leaders sent a letter to its members and reported members called on them to reject the tentative agreement, which offers an 11.5% raise over four years, a .5% wage adjustment, and a one-time payment of $2,500..The estimated cost of the wage increase for 120,000 public servants to the government is around $1.3 billion annually..“Our members were adamant that we would not accept 9% over a three-year term — instead, we are being asked to accept, depending on how you do the math, either a little less or a little more than 3% a year for a FOUR-year term, putting our members even further behind on inflation,” said the CEIU letter..CEIU represents 36,000 of the nearly 100,000 members in PSAC's programs and administrative services (PA) groups, which is the largest unit of the four groups totalling 120,000 public servants who went on strike recently. .The CEIU carries significant weight within PSAC as it represents most of the employees at Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)..After 10 days of striking and two years of on-and-off negotiations, PSAC and the Treasury Board Secretariat reached a tentative agreement for four years on Sunday. .The tentative agreement is subject to a vote by PSAC members and must be ratified by at least 51% of the members..If other PSAC-affiliated unions follow CEIU's lead, it could impact PSAC's leadership, leading to renewed negotiations with the government and another potential strike..CEIU's leadership said rejecting the agreement will have consequences and apply “necessary additional pressure for this government to table more money and be more willing to negotiate other gains.”.One key objection of the CEIU leadership is PSAC did not secure the “right to teleworking” in the tentative agreement..The federal government consistently stated it would never approve such a demand be determining the workplace location is a right of management to decide..“Many CEIU members were also frustrated to learn that proposed language for telework does not enshrine remote work into our collective agreement — instead, it creates joint union-employer departmental panels that largely rely on the goodwill of the employer to address issues related to the Treasury Board’s application of the remote work directive,” said the letter..According to PSAC National President Chris Aylward, although the bargaining teams advise that the agreement be approved, it's now up to the members to voice their opinions..“It’s a democratic process and members have the right to vote on that agreement. And they will either vote to accept it or they will vote to reject it,” said Aylward.
