The PSAC-Customs and Immigration Union (PSAC-CIU) bargaining team representing the Border Services (FB) group made limited progress in their latest round of negotiations with Treasury Board/Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) the week of May 13.

Leave provisions

Over the course of the three days of negotiations, the parties discussed a number of issues. With respect to leave, the employer has proposed to make Care and Nurturing Leave (Article 41 Leave for Care of Family) “subject to operational requirements”. The bargaining team told Treasury Board that the team is not prepared to take steps backwards in this round of negotiations, and that “subject to operational requirements” at CBSA all too often means “NO”, and results in grievances. The PSAC-CIU team rejected this proposal.

However, the parties did make limited progress with respect to employees accessing Compassionate Care Leave and Caregiving Leave.

Pay parity for Border Services Officers

The team discussed the FB 2 situation. We have indicated to the employer that FB-2 Border Services Officers (BSOs) are effectively doing the same job as FB-3s, and are therefore being exploited as a cheap labour force. While the union and hundreds of members have filed grievances on this issue, it is the union’s position that clear language should be introduced into the collective agreement to ensure that officers are paid at the FB-3 level as soon as they leave Rigaud. CBSA has denied this proposal. The PSAC-CIU team is maintaining its position.

Workplace changes without consent

The team raised the issue of CBSA making changes in workplaces without obtaining the union’s consent, and that we will be consulting legal counsel concerning potential further legal action against CBSA for making unilateral changes to conditions during collective bargaining.

Negotiations are set to resume June 11-13, 2019. Dates have also been set to meet throughout the summer.

Click here to review PSAC-CIU’s package of proposals as well as those of the employer.

For more information visit psacunion.ca/fb