PSAC deal to cost $1.3B a year, ‘less than half’ of union’s original demands

The federal government’s deal with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) will end up costing around $1.3 billion a year — less than half of PSAC’s original demands.

That’s according to Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, who gave an update on the deal announced overnight Monday.

“This wasn’t easy,” Fortier said to reporters Monday afternoon. “We negotiated, we compromised, and we found creative solutions. And after many long days, nights and weekends of hard work, we’ve reached a fair and competitive deal for employees.”

2:07 PSAC strike ends pending tentative deal for most workers

The deal involves a compounded pay increase of 12.6 per cent over four years, retroactive to 2021 — below PSAC’s requested 13.5 per cent over three years — and a one-time payment of $2,500 for workers. While the deal involved all four bargaining units of PSAC, totalling about 120,000 workers, negotiations are ongoing for CRA workers as the tax filing deadline hit on Monday.

PSAC said in a statement Monday that workers on strike would return to work as of 9 a.m., while Fortier said the government is working to resume normal activities “as fast as we can.”

PSAC said that the deal is a fair contract that exceeds the government’s original offer before the launch of strike action.

“This agreement delivers important gains for our members that will set the bar for all workers in Canada,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC national president, in a statement.

The agreement also laid out a clearer process for handling requests around remote work.

Under the terms of the deal, managers will need “to assess remote work requests individually, not by group, and provide written responses that will allow members and PSAC to hold the employer accountable to equitable and fair decision-making on remote work.”

2:38 PSAC deal reached, CRA employees still on strike

“It will also result in the creation of joint union-employer departmental panels to address issues related to the employer’s application of the remote work directive in the workplace,” the union said.

Fortier noted that because the wording, however, is contained in a separate letter of intent and not in the main collective bargaining agreement, public service workers will not be able to grieve complaints about remote work requests being denied.

“Remote work won’t be a grievance,” she said.

Fortier said negotiations, which had been at a standstill for about two weeks, began to shift when the federal government recently said it had a final offer.

“We have a really good deal on the table,” she said.