Victory! Union helps avoid job losses through alternation

Vi Noonan says that if weren’t for PSAC, she would not have her new job.
Like hundreds of PSAC members, Noonan received an “affected notice” in September 2012 and later found out that her job at the Department of Justice was being eliminated. She was placed on a surplus list and made several attempts to swap jobs with colleagues that were interested in retiring early. She initially had no luck.

Many other union members faced the same problem. PSAC heard from members and local representatives that some departments and managers weren’t participating in the alternation process or were denying alternations without good reasons, so we filed a policy grievance.

PSAC negotiated the collective agreement protections in the Workforce Adjustment Agreement many years ago. The severe cutbacks by the Conservative government in the past couple of years have made these protections even more important. But collective agreement provisions mean little if the employer isn’t implementing or enforcing them.

In April 2013, we won our grievance at the Public Service Labour Relations Board. The board ruled that Treasury Board and departments had to set up an effective alternation system, and could not deny alternations except for the very specific reasons allowed in the collective agreement.

The board left it up to the union and the employer to work out how we would implement the ruling and help employees who had been wrongly denied alternations. We eventually came to an agreement with Treasury Board and many departments starting adopting better alternation processes in the meantime.

For Noonan, this meant that she was given more time and another opportunity to find someone who was interested in swapping jobs with her.“PSAC put a survey out to members and was able to identify members who wanted to retire and others like me, who wanted to stay in the public service,” said Noonan.

Our union was able to connect Noonan with a member who worked in Human Resources at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. After more than a year on the surplus list, Noonan was able to secure a new job and continue to put her 25 years of experience to good use.“I am so happy,” says Noonan. “This would not have happened without PSAC. I love my new job.”