News release

October 26, 2007

PSAC bargains new agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency in record time

OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has achieved an historic milestone in its bargaining history. The union has negotiated a tentative agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) before the expiry date of the current contract.

“Negotiating a new contract before the old one has expired is virtually unheard of in the federal public sector,” says PSAC National President John Gordon. “In this case, both negotiating teams were focused on reaching a new agreement and we have achieved this in record time.”

The union served notice to bargain and exchanged bargaining demands with the CRA at the beginning of July. Intense negotiations took place over a two-week period in September and resumed in mid-October.

“Our negotiating team is making a unanimous recommendation of acceptance to our members,” says Gordon. “The speed of these negotiations did not affect our ability to achieve important gains.”

During this round of bargaining, the parties were negotiating the conversion to a new Agency classification standard. While the amounts will vary by individual, the average increase as a result of the conversion is 1.67%. After the salaries are converted to the new standard effective November 1, the workers will also receive an economic increase of 2.5%. Further wage increases during the life of the contract are 2.5% effective November 1, 2008 and 2.5% effective November 1, 2009.

The union was also successful in negotiating changes to the Agency's policy on term workers. Effective November 1, 2007 term workers who have accumulated five years of service, without a break of 30 days or more anytime during the accumulation of this service, will automatically become indeterminate. This will have an immediate impact on over 400 workers.

The tentative agreement also provides enhanced benefits for part-time workers including improved overtime provisions, as well as overall gains in personal and bereavement leaves and some improvement in vacation leave.

According to Betty Bannon, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) component of the PSAC, the union wanted to set a new standard for bargaining. “From the beginning, our goal has been to avoid having a long gap between the expiry of one agreement and the conclusion of a new one and this time we've done it.”

The union will be conducting a ratification vote among the 26,000 PSAC members at the Agency during the month of November. If ratified, the new agreement will expire on October 31, 2010.

For information:
John Gordon, PSAC national president, 613-558-4975
Betty Bannon, UTE national president 613-266-5956

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