Canadian Labour Reporter

1 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 FEBRUARY 24, 2014 LABOUR BRIEFS Mount Allison faculty still on strike / Job openings drop in November: StatsCan / Salmon fishery changes slammed . . . . . . 2 COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS • Government of Yukon, province-wide, Yukon. Twelve paid holidays. . . . . . . . . 3 • Shaw Pipe Protection, Edmonton. Double time for shifts worked on holidays . . . . 3 • Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation, province-wide, Manitoba. $50 per month for employees required to work at the downtown location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 • Acadia Toyota, Moncton, N.B. Moment of silence for workers killed or injured on the job every April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 • IKEA, Saint-Laurent, Que. One paid day for employee's wedding . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 • L. Breton Transport Ltée, Marbleton, Que. Six month probation period . . . . . . . . . 5 • Nasittuq Corporation, Inuvik, N.W.T. Nine per cent wage increase . . . . . . . . 5 ARBITRATION AWARDS • Contact information rightfully disclosed to union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 • Facebook post leads to firing . . . . . . . . 8 ON LABOUR-REPORTER.COM Correctional officers demand stricter safety policies at a Newfoundland prison and workers at a Tennessee plant vote against union representation. Visit www.labour- reporter.com for daily news stories. Follow us on Twitter @labourreporter. And don't forget — all collective agreement summaries on labour-reporter.com now include links to the full agreements. UPCOMING ISSUES Tough bargaining times are forecasted ahead for unions, after recent data shows a 16-year low for pay hikes. High profile wage freezes and government intervention has led to a volatile future at the bargain- ing table. How will this affect negotia- tions? We find out next week. | by LIZ FOSTER | ROBYN BENSON IS sick and tired of the debate surrounding sick leave for pub- lic servants. Benson, president of the Public Ser- vice Alliance of Canada (PSAC) union, said the proposed changes to sick leave policy are hazardous to workers' health. Speaking at a recent provincial Pro- gressive Conservative conference in Nova Scotia, Treasury Board minister Tony Clement proposed changes to the federal government's current sick leave manage- ment system that would eliminate accumulated sick leave and replace it with a short-term disability (STD) plan for its employees. "What he is still failing to understand is that (sick leave) is contained within our collective agreement," Benson said of Clement. "He needs to come to the negotiating table. I'm quite prepared to negotiate an improvement to our provisions, but we have no intention of giving up our sick leave." Clement's proposal would provide employees with five to seven sick days a year, a short-term disability leave of a week to six months and long-term leave for more than six months. The short-term leave would report- edly do more for young or new public employees who don't have enough sick days accumulated to deal with extend- ed illness, according to Ottawa. "Without the banked days, many em- ployees are at financial risk in the event that they become ill or injured for a pro- longed period," Treasury Board media relations representative Kelly James said in a statement to Canadian Labour Re- porter. "In 2011-2012 over 6,500 federal employees went without pay during an illness." James said 25 per cent of employees have less than 10 days of banked sick leave and 65 per cent do not have enough sick days accumu- lated to cover the 13-week period before they become eligible for long-term dis- ability (LTD) benefits. The proposed changes would do more to address health issues like mental illness than the current system of accumulated sick days does, Clement said. The Treasury Board reports mental illness accounts for roughly one-half of all sick leave. Benson, however, believes the pro- posed changes will actually harm public service employees more than help them. "This is not going to help mental health at all," Benson said. "In fact, it's probably going to increase the problems Government proposes changes to public servants' sick leave Short-term disability provisions a tough pill to swallow: Union PM #40065782 Continued on page 7 "They're misleading Canadians, quite frankly. Certainly, we bank our sick leave. If we use it, there's a pay out for it. If we don't use it, we just lose it." IN THIS ISSUE

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