OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to take a hard line against the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s demands. 

“Families are trying to figure out whether they can afford milk or ground beef at the grocery store and government union negotiators are asking for an extra $9.3 billion,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “The government’s bargaining position needs to be absolute no to these demands.”

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat provided the CTF with PSAC’s demands for increased wage and non-wage benefits across each bargaining group: 

• “EB [Education and Library Science] group – Eight per cent per year over three years. Compounded, this would represent a 25 per cent increase over three years.
• “PA [Program and Administrative Services] group – Nine per cent per year over three years. Compounded, this would represent a 29 per cent increase over three years.
• “SV [Operational Services] group – 14 per cent per year over three years. Compounded, this would represent a 47 per cent increase over three years.
• “TC [Technical Services] group – Nine per cent per year over three years. Compounded, this would represent a 28 per cent increase over three years.”

The TBS also provided the CTF with the cost of PSAC’s demands. 

“Conservative costing of PSAC's pay proposals and other monetary proposals (e.g. increase in overtime rates, expanded leave provisions) is $3.1 billion per year, every year, ongoing. Over three years, that would amount to a cumulative cost of $9.3 billion.”

The TBS also noted that “PSAC's pay proposals and other monetary proposals (e.g. increase in overtime rates, expanded leave provisions)” would “represent an ongoing annual cost increase of approximately $27,500 per employee across the 119,000 employees in the EB, PA, SV, and TC groups.”

In addition to wage increases, the TBS told the CTF that “PSAC has a significant number of costly non-wage-related demands,” including:

• “Increased paid leave for family related responsibilities from 37.5 hours to 75 hours every year.
• “Accrual of four weeks of automatic vacation leave after four years of service, rather than after seven years of service.
• “Increased and extended eligibility for a variety of allowances and premiums, including shift premium and meal allowances.
• “All overtime paid at double-time, where now it is most often paid at time-and-a-half.”

The Public Interest Commission’s report also confirmed that PSAC is demanding a 47 per cent compensation increase over three years for one of its bargaining groups. The report noted that these demands “would result in an increase to compensation far beyond what is reasonable.”

The Treasury Board “is the employer for the core public administration,” according to the government website on collective bargaining.