a response to "Tories put PS sick leave in sights"

Learn from past mistakes-a response to Tories put PS sick leave in sights (Ottawa Citizen - March 15)

The government appears to be threatening to use the federal budget to tamper with our members' negotiated sick leave benefits. They might want to think twice about that.
Dalton McGuinty did that to teachers in Ontario: he unilaterally announced changes to freely negotiated collective agreements that took away teachers' sick leave and replaced it with a short-term disability plan. In the process, he destroyed labour relations with the teachers and left a sour taste in the mouth of every student in the province.

Note that McGuinty is no longer premier, and the new premier is still trying to undo the damage. The government is entitled to announce its plans for future collective bargaining all it wants, but those plans don't belong in the federal budget or the budget bill. Most of our membership already has contracts in place through to the middle of 2014. There is no interest on their part for a discussion about the sick leave provisions of their agreements and they are sending a strong message: we won't trade it, sell it, swap it, lose it or give it away.

PSAC has said many times that we are very concerned about the high occurrence of illness among our members. Our members tell us the situation is only getting worse as this government slashes jobs, services and programs, leaving them with impossible workloads, worried about the public they serve, and anxious that they may be the next to go.

An announcement from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty about sick leave benefits will only make that situation worse.
Now let's hope that he will demonstrate that he has been thinking about the well-being of all Canadians and that this week's budget finally recognizes that cutting jobs and services isn't promoting the health of our members, protecting services the public rely on, or building the Canadian economy.

by Robyn Benson, National President, Public Service Alliance of Canada

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