It is with great sadness I write this notice of the passing of one of our former presidents, Sister Jacky Smith, on Wedneday 14 July 2010. Jacky was the president of the Saanich local for many years and then continued when the local became the Greater Victoria local. The service for Jacky will be held on Friday, July 23rd at 2pm at the Langford Legion at 761Station Ave.
Jacky will be missed by all of her brothers and sisters in the union as well as by the leadership in the Victoria area offices.
Pat
Unsafe buildings threaten government workers’ health and safety, says PSAC
Posted May 19, 2009
OTTAWA --The federal government is failing to ensure the safety of thousands of workers and the public by not properly enforcing fire safety rules and regulations, says the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union representing more than 100,000 federal public sector workers.
PSAC is sounding the alarm in response to the release of the 2009 Spring Report of the Auditor General. The report highlights the government’s widespread failure to comply with key requirements of the Treasury Board’s Standard for Fire Safety Planning and Fire Emergency Organization.
“The Auditor General has issued a very troublesome report,” says Patty Ducharme, PSAC’s National Executive Vice-President.
Auditor General Sheila Fraser points out that less than 20 per cent of government buildings’ fire safety plans comply with Treasury Board’s fire safety requirements. This means that more than 80 per cent of federal government workplaces have either no fire safety plans or are relying on plans that have not been approved by Labour Canada putting thousands of PSAC members and the public at risk.
In addition, Fraser notes that although all federal departments are required to conduct annual fire drills, one-third of the 54 buildings that were examined for her report did not comply with this basic requirement.
Fraser is also critical of the lack of enforcement and the government’s reliance on voluntary compliance: “In our view, this is not sufficient to administer and enforce the Standard,” says Fraser.
“PSAC agrees with the Auditor General’s assertion that voluntary compliance doesn’t work when it comes to protecting the safety of people working in and accessing government buildings,” says Ducharme. “We demand that the federal government take action now and not wait for a major catastrophe or loss of life before it starts enforcing its own rules and regulations regarding the safety of its employees and members of the public.”
My Olympic Diary by District Director Francine Baxter
Published June 7th, 2009
Francine and a few others had all the right stuff to be selected to represent Service Canada in Whister, BC for the 2010 Winter Olympics. See her great pictures and fascinating story here.
PSAC takes action on AS Compensation Issues
From the PSAC National Site PSAC President John Gordon and members of the Compensation Community appeared before a House of Commons committee last week to put forward solutions regarding the challenges facing the compensation function in the federal government.
Treasury Board President says he won't go after the benefits of â€existing' federal employees
Stockwell Day has opened the door to a two-tier pension system for civil servants, saying he won’t go after the benefits of “existing†federal employees. The Treasury Board President is the man holding the knife in Ottawa as the federal cabinet looks for ways to save money. So far reluctant to offer specifics, Mr. Day’s words are closely parsed for signs of where the Conservative government will cut.
He is facing a campaign of rallies and workplace stickers by unionized federal employees vowing to protect their pensions in the face of the government’s five year plan to erase the $53-billion deficit. (More)
Government overhauling handling of depression in public service
By Kathryn May, Ottawa Citizen
Posted March 20th, 2010
OTTAWA The Harper government is taking steps to promote “workforce
wellness” in the public service, as records show depression, stress and
other mental illnesses account for nearly 45 per cent of all disability
claims.
The Treasury Board quietly kicked off a disability
initiative several years ago and is expected to have a business plan
ready within the year a critical first step in turning around the
escalating number of mental-health claims that are taking employees off
the job. (More)
Government's public service cuts slammed
MIRANDA MINASSIAN
FOR METRO OTTAWA Posted March 20th, 2010
The head of Canada’s largest public service has criticized the
government for continuing to strip away at regulatory policies after
Treasury Board president Stockwell Day announced 245 federal positions
were eliminated yesterday. (More)
We can't fix the public sector in one budget
Karim Bardeesy
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010 5:30PM EST
Co-operation, not confrontation, is the path to fiscal salvation
For a hint of the turmoil to come
between Canada's public-sector workers and government, look to Europe.
The centrepiece of Ireland's recent budget was salary cuts across the
board: Nurses, the national police force and parliamentarians were all
caught in the dragnet. The British government is trying to trim its
public payroll, while austerity measures aimed at resolving a debt
crisis in Greece have led to riots. (More)
Public service bracing for cuts
By Kathryn May, Ottawa Citizen March 3, 2010
OTTAWA The Harper government targeted the public service with "aggressive" plans to freeze salaries, the operations of all departments and launch a major spending review that many predict will cut jobs and services to Canadians.
The plans, laid out in the federal government's throne speech Wednesday, came as no surprise for Canada's bureaucrats who were braced for the government to turn to its own employees, along with their pay and pensions, for savings. (More)
Civil servant unions pushing back on feared cuts to pensions
Civil servant unions pushing back on feared
cuts to pensions
By Kathryn May, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Canada's bureaucrats are steeled for this week's budget to
reduce the value of the deluxe pension plan that the government pitches
to new recruits as a reason to join the public service.
While
the two largest federal unions and the Canadian Labour Congress showed a
united front Tuesday to fight any cuts to federal pensions, the
government is wrapping up a recruitment campaign partly built around
"attractive compensation," including one of the best pension plans in
the country.
Departments have a target to hire 4,000 new
graduates by the end of March.
But the uncertainty over
pensions could deter new recruits and spark a stampede of retiring
workers who may opt to leave before the government guts their pensions,
said Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public
Service. He said the union is getting calls from workers pleading to
know whether they should retire now before pensions are cut. (More)
