[Tb-bargaining] TB Bargaining Update: Frustrating negotiations for EB group

[Patrick Bragg]

Four full days of bargaining with Treasury Board last week left members
of the EB Table feeling disappointed and wondering if their management
counterparts have a mandate to bargain.

Your team was able to sign off on the existing hours of work for
librarians, language teachers, and employees in the ED-EDS
classification, after the Employer dropped a  demand (dealt with at the
PA table) to expand the hours of a normal work day to between 6 a.m. and
6 p.m. And the EB team also withdrew a Travelling Time proposal dealing
with child and elder care, acknowledging that the issue is more
appropriately dealt with at the National Joint Council.

But that was where the progress ended. The Employer has said no to our
demand to improve bereavement leave to five working days from five
consecutive days, in the case of a death in the immediate family. They
have said no to our proposal to remove the cap on the amount of vacation
pay that can be carried over from year to year.

But most disturbing was the Employer*s cavalier response to a
detailed presentation by the EB team last November demonstrating that
10-month teachers who work on aboriginal reserves at Six Nations,
Tyendinaga and Cold Lake routinely work approximately three weeks of
unpaid overtime each year. Our proposal asked for a modest improvement
in preparatory time and for three days to fulfill administrative
obligations. The Employer dismissed our concerns, saying that they
should be dealt with at local union-management meetings * despite the
fact that prep and administrative time are contract language issues. And
consistent with their approach, they said no to our proposal that
10-month teachers should have the right to be paid overtime.

We are still waiting for responses on our demands to improve career
development leave, professional development leave and pedagogical break.
We are also waiting for them to respond to our proposals that would
limit the widespread use of term employment, especially in the ED-LAT
classification, and introduce sabbatical leave. We are hoping for a
response at our next meeting in early March to the major problems we
flagged with respect to the LS classification standard.

At the next bargaining session, your team will be dealing with CSC
issues, particularly hours of work for teachers and the contracting out
of bargaining unit work. We also have a proposal dealing with teachers
in high stress environments and we intend to return to our demand,
rebuffed by the Employer early in negotiations, to add gender identity
and gender expression, as well as political activity, to the No
Discrimination language.