Treasury Board Posts Disability Insurance and Sick Leave Strategy Information
On January 10, 2014 the Treasury Board of Canada posted its strategy to modernize Disability Insurance (D.I.) and sick leave on its external website.
The ?Workplace Wellness and Productivity Strategy? attempts to outline the Treasury Board?s proposed framework to modernize the D.I. and sick leave system while claiming it is actively engaged with the Bargaining Agents within the public service and the National Joint Council. The strategy speaks for itself to a limited extent and the Local would be remiss if a few of its implied messages were not clarified:
- The ?strategy? is heavy on goals the employer is setting for itself and light on factual information for employees and their duly elected representatives. It does however send a clear message that the employer will be tabling sick leave (banked and otherwise) in the next round of collective bargaining.
- The Bargaining Agents within the public service ceased participating in the D.I./Sick Leave Modernization Working Group in early November exactly because of the lack of useful collaboration and co-development from the employer.
Notwithstanding the lack of information to date, the IBEW will do whatever it can to learn as much as possible about the employer?s intentions for the next round of bargaining.
The IBEW will also continue to find creative ways of meeting these challenges in the next round of bargaining. To that end the Local is convening a bargaing strategy conference in mid March and encourages interested members in good standing to sign up and attend. Comments and other creative ideas are always welcome to be submitted to the Locals bargaining proposal manager as well.
In Solidarity,
Paul Cameron
Assistant Business Manager