Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Together with a major union, Treasury Board has agreed to a new playbook for the current round of collective bargaining that’s meant to result in faster deals and higher standards of conduct and trust.

Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), called the new protocol “historic.”

Daviau said she hopes it will help resolve the procedural wrangling and “spinning of wheels” that have bogged down collective bargaining for years.

It’s the first time bargaining will be governed by a protocol, which Daviau said is built on principles of mutual trust, respect, transparency, information-sharing, flexibility and consistency.

Historically, the government’s relations with the 18 federal unions have been tense and fractious, but they hit new lows in the previous Tory era. Relations have improved under the Trudeau government, which was elected on the promise of restoring respect for the public service.

Daviau said the government and unions have built “goodwill” in recent years, particularly when working together to tackle the Phoenix pay crisis, and she wanted to embed that in the bargaining process. She initiated negotiations for the new protocol with then-Treasury Board secretary Yaprak Baltacıoğlu and finalized it with her successor, Peter Wallace.

She said the new rules will speed up the pace of collective bargaining and make the process more efficient and productive.

So much time is lost because the sides often don’t communicate well and aren’t informed of the other’s position, she said, adding it’s costly to fly in bargaining team members from across the country to square off against Treasury Board negotiators when nothing gets done until the 11th-hour talks.

“Those kinds of midnight discussions … should be happening at the front end, with the parties at the negotiating table; the protocol builds that in.

“I’d like to ensure (that) the time at the table is actually spent negotiating … rather than prevaricating. (They) go off for a day and come back; tell us no and get nowhere,” said Daviau.

She said what’s most frustrating is days spent at the bargaining table with negotiators who have no mandate from the government to reach a deal. The last round of bargaining, which began under the Conservatives, dragged on under the Liberals for a year with no firm marching orders from government.

She said several changes have been made to break logjams at the bargaining table.

The new protocol will be put to the test in the current round of bargaining, when Phoenix will loom large. The unions want a “fair deal” and don’t feel they should have to fight to get it after nearly three years of botched pay. Some public servants have yet to receive the raises and back pay from the last contract, which dates back to 2014.

Daviau argues it’s also in the government’s interest to strike a deal quickly, because Phoenix still can’t handle the calculation of retroactive payments very well.

“I’d like this round not to take so long and, in light of Phoenix, the government should be offering a fair deal from the get-go. … They have put the union and public servants through an incredible amount of grief during this period, and they should not make it hard on them in this round. Just offer us a fair deal and don’t make us fight for it.”

The unions and government also have a separate round of discussions underway to negotiate compensation for damages caused by Phoenix, which unions argue should have no bearing on collective bargaining. They say a damage settlement should not affect raises and monetary benefits.

Daviau said PIPSC hasn’t tried the protocol yet because the union hasn’t formally started negotiations. Bargaining sessions are booked for October, November and December.

The largest union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has been in negotiations for several months and has already exchanged demands with the government. It returns to the table next week.

Daviau said PIPSC is also creating a central bargaining table for problems common to the various employees it represents, such as expanding parental leave, harassment in the workplace, and the base raise. (The base increase for all public servants in the last round was 1.25 per cent a year.)

PIPSC represents more than 60,000 professionals in the public service, from scientists and engineers to auditors and IT specialists.

Daviau said central negotiations should speed up bargaining, because common concerns won’t have to be separately negotiated in sessions with the various occupational groups.