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You may not be aware of it but GN is revising the PublicService Act, which is the law governing the employment relationship that all public servants have with GN. It deals with issues like how you get hired and fired by GN, the terms and conditions of employment, who can and cannot be a member of the union, and how collective bargaining is conducted. IQ The current act dates back to the GNWT. When Nunavut was formed, the GN was obliged to change all its laws to reflect the fact that 85per cent of the population are Inuit. In other words, Nunavut is supposed to be a place which reflects Inuitsociety and culture, generally known as InuitQaujimaningit and Inuit Qaujimajatuqang (IQ). The GN has continually asserted its intention to integrate Inuit societal values into the PSA and, indeed it is bound by the land claims agreement to do so. It has said so in its main policy document Pinasuaqtavut which incorporates a set of principles that state what those IQ values are. Steering Committee A committee has been set up to change the Public Service Act and NEU is a member. The changes have been moving very slowly. There was a meeting one year ago and another last week. These are some of the changes GN wants to make to the collective bargaining process. Second mediation session The GN would like to force its employees to strike. They know that employees who are on strike will not be receiving a salary and this places great pressure on them to return to work. But they also want to appear to be always willing to talk and trying to reach a settlement. They say that by trying mediation twice they are making an Act that incorporates IQ. Perhaps they are right and, because the union does not want its members to lose money, we have agreed to this idea. Minister wants to force the members to vote on the GN's final offer Before the union can call a strike it must get the approval of the members through a secret ballot. The GN would like to have the power to decide when that vote takes place by presenting a "final offer" at a certain point during the negotiations and forcing the members to either accept their offer or strike. Only two provinces in Canada allow the employer to do this because it is considered a direct interference in the employees' right to decide when, if at all, they will withdraw theirservices. GN says that giving the Minister this power is inkeeping with Inuit culture and society. The NEU believes this is nonsense. Lockout Far from wanting to "keep talking" to achieve a settlement GN would also like to lock out its employees. This power would enable the GN to close its offices, cut off its employees salaries as though they were on strike, and deprive the public of their programs and services.This is apparently in keeping with Inuit society and culture. Staffing Appeals A few GN employees are "excluded" from membership in the union. These people are generally senior officials like assistant deputy ministers, most directors, the staff in Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs and most of Human Resources. The GN would like to give its excluded employees many of the same benefits that union members receive, suchas a grievance process and a right to an impartial appeal if an employee feels they have not been treated fairly in a staffing competition. The NEU agree that all staff should be treated fairly but while union members must pay union dues to ensure fair treatment, GN would like give their excluded senior staff fair treatment at the public'sexpense. This, apparently, is another expression of Inuit society and values. The NEU cannot support a two tier process that extends abenefit that one group of employees pay for out of their own pockets while asmall, exclusive group of senior managers receive the same benefit at the public's expense. While GN has offered its version of a Public Service Act which reflects Inuit values the NEU has put forward some proposals of its own including: compulsory arbitration (instead of a strike); setting up a labour board to ensure that employee relations are conducted legally and fairly; and proposing a set of rules to prevent both GN and the union from acting in bad faith. These proposals can be found under "Member's Information" on this website. We would like to hear your views about the proposed changes to the Public Service Act. Please email John Bainbridge at: john@neu.ca. Overtime/Lieutime Theproposed change to the GN Human Resources manual section#608 to section #1208(Overtime) reduces the amount of lieu time which can be accumulated and also requires employees with accumulated lieu time to decide by March 31 to use it or take cash, does not over-ride or conflict with the current Collective Agreement between GN and NEU. However, before introducing the change the GN was required pursuant to Article 5 of the collective agreement to consult with the union. A meeting took place this morning between the NEU and senior officials of the Department of Human Resources. The NEU expressed their regrets at the lack of compliance with Article 5 of the Collective Agreement The department stated that the primary reason for the change is to impose some standardization on all GN departments in implementing the accumulation of lieu time and the taking of lieu time. The intent of GN is also to reduce the dislocation to the GN's operations caused by employees taking extended lieu leaves. This dislocation is particularly damaging during the current under-capacity of the GN. The NEU stated that improved management practice would have achieved the same result as changing the policy. → back to top |
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