Our work counts
Vol. 1 No. 1 - November 2009
PSAC defends members' rights in Treasury Board classification review
PSAC participated in a historic first step toward long-awaited classification reform in the federal public service last fall. In November, PSAC and Treasury Board negotiated a collective agreement that includes a commitment by the employer to engage in a process of meaningful consultation with the union on occupational group structure, beginning with the Program and Administrative Services (PA) bargaining unit.
This group includes almost 70,000 employees responsible for program administration, information services, communications, secretarial services, office equipment, administrative services, welfare programs, clerical functions and data processing.
PSAC acted quickly to hold the government to its commitment and met with Treasury Board on May 19, 2009 to begin the classification review process.
However, given the sheer number of employees and different classifications, the reform process is complex and will take time. The language in our collective agreement with Treasury Board contemplates that the initial stage of reform – a review of the occupational group structure in the PA group – could take up to two years. The process will then move to the other employee groups. Throughout all of this, PSAC will be working with Treasury Board to develop fair and accurate classification standards.
As we move through this process, PSAC will be drawing on the expertise of union members in the workplace, and we expect membership involvement to increase as things unfold.
What are occupational groups?
Occupational groups were developed by Treasury Board in 1999 to combine a number of classifications that perform similar work under one umbrella group. For example, the Program and Administration (PA) occupational group consists of several different classifications including AS, CR, PM and several others that share one collective agreement.
Why is a review of the occupational group structure necessary?
In 1999, the federal government proposed that a new classification system (the Universal Classification System – UCS) replace the outdated, complex system that has a myriad of different classification plans, many of which were created more than 40 years ago. Unfortunately, the UCS project was dropped in 2002. That means that there are now still about 30 different occupational groups with more than 60 different classification plans in bargaining units represented by 15 different unions. This is tremendously confusing and has made it difficult to assess whether or not jobs have been properly classified.
Why does PSAC want a review of the occupational groups?
For more than 20 years, PSAC has called on the federal government to reform its outdated system, which still uses classification plans from the 1960s to evaluate the work our members perform in 2009.
It took more than 50 years to create this very complex system and both PSAC and the federal government now recognize that in order to fix it, a review of the entire system is necessary, rather than just “tweaking” individual classifications.
PSAC believes that the current system cannot be fixed without a review of the broader occupational group structure. This is why the union has agreed to contract language that will compel Treasury Board to work with us to develop a new classification system that will evaluate and compensate all of our members fairly and equitably for the important work they do.
Visit the PSAC web site at psac-afpc.com for regular updates about Occupational Group Structure Review and Classification Reform. You can also subscribe to our Program and Administrative Services (PA) e-mail listserv by filling in the form under ‘Receive the News by E-mail' from the side menu on the PSAC home page.
OCCUPATIONAL GROUP STRUCTURE REVIEW AT TREASURY BOARD
Date Modified : 2010/01/29
