House of Commons

The Issues

1.       PSAC Membership at the House of Commons

There are approximately 440 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) working at the House in four bargaining units, the largest being the Operations Group (Trades, Maintenance, Restaurant Services, Printing, Transport) with approx. 300 members. The other three consist of the Reps and Texts Group (Reporting and Text Processing, 60 members), the Postal Group (handles all mail for the House, 50 members) and the Scanners (scan visitors to the House, approx. 30 members).

2.       Status of the Collective Agreements for These Workers

Three of the four groups are currently in negotiations with the House. These include Operational, Reporting and Text Processing and Postal groups. The PSAC has been in negotiations with the House for two months and has made little progress, this in spite of the fact that almost 350 employees of the House (a supermajority of the PSAC membership) signed a petition submitted to the Clerk calling on the House to work with us to resolve the core issues listed below.

3.        Categories of Employees at the House

At present there essentially three kinds of workers at the House: Full-Time Indeterminate, Seasonal Certified Indeterminate (SCI) and what could be called Non-Employees or Persons (under the law governing staff relations on the Hill you must work at least 700 hours in a calendar year to be an ‘employee’). ‘Persons’ have few rights under the law. They do not have the right to unionize – thus the PSAC does not represent them.

4.       Issues and Solutions Proposed by the PSAC

Issue: Lack of work stability and fairness for SCI employees.
Full-Time Indeterminate employees are guaranteed a regular 35 hour workweek under our agreements with the House. However, at present SCI’s are not guaranteed hours, and there is no clear system in place to both provide these workers the opportunity to pick up hours or to become Full-Time Indeterminate. Furthermore, if you work less than 700 hours over two calendar years you lose ‘employee’ status. As a result of the current practice, there are employees with well over ten years of service at the House that have been denied the opportunity to become a permanent employee. These employees – essentially at-will workers with few rights – represent a significant portion of the workforce at the House.

Solution proposed at the bargaining table :
The union has proposed a system that allows for SCI employees to access scheduled hours using a fair, objective and transparent system, and to gain permanent status once these employees have worked regular hours over a certain period of time.

Issue: Job Security
At present, there is no job security for SCI workers. The employer currently has the right to send workers home for weeks – indeed months - on end to collect EI. There is no layoff system, no job security language, no protection whatsoever for these individuals. And there is no system with respect to how these people are called back to work. For example, recently there was an incident where an employee with 10 years of service in the Parliamentary Kitchen visited someone at the House while on layoff, only to find a new hire doing his job while the 10 year employee was on layoff collecting EI. At a personal level, one can only imagine the toll these precarious working conditions takes on workers and their families both financially and psychologically.

Solution proposed at the bargaining table :
First, the union has proposed that job security provisions apply to everyone covered by our agreement, and that there be a fair, objective and transparent system in place should a reduction in force be necessary. Second, the union has proposed a Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB) Plan for these individuals modeled on plans currently in existence in the Federal Public Service and the private sector.

Issue: Hours of Work
The current language in our contracts with the House has allowed managers to force employees to work overtime, in some cases (such as the print shop) for over fourteen days straight of forced overtime on twelve hour shifts – with virtually no notice. Also there are rotational shift practices that do not allow for stability for employees. These practices are difficult for employees and their families.

Solution proposed at the bargaining table :
The union is proposing language that introduces clear, transparent and equitable processes around overtime and shift allocation in an effort to bring an element of predictability to the working lives of employees.

Summary
In addition to these proposals, there are many others that address such fundamentals as ensuring that employees get a lunch break during the day, that people know what hours they will be working in advance, etc. All of our proposals going into these negotiations are geared towards one thing: introducing fairness and clear, objective and transparent processes with respect to working conditions at the House of Commons. And virtually all of the Union’s proposals are modelled on what already exists in the private and public sectors. Our hope is that the House will chose to work with us in rectifying these problems, rather than insisting that the current injustices continue. It is time working conditions at the House caught up with the 21st century.

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