Article content continued

The budget bill allows Treasury Board president Tony Clement to set aside parts of the Public Service Labour Relations Act, which governs collective bargaining in the public service, to impose new terms and conditions for sick leave. This paves the way for the short-term disability plan he wants implemented.

It means Treasury Board can dictate terms of the three most contentious issues around sick leave — the amount of annual sick leave public servants will be entitled to, the amount they can carry over to the next year and how the existing sick-leave banks will be handled.

“Treasury Board (has) unilateral power to impose whatever terms and conditions it wants in relation to sick leave for whatever employees it wants within the core public administration, whenever it wants and for as long as it wants,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau.

The unions raised a number of “troubling” changes that will tie their hands in the ongoing round of bargaining.

They say the bill “stacks the deck” by giving Treasury Board the unilateral power to impose the terms of sick leave, which is the biggest and most contentious issue at the ongoing contract talks. Those terms will be enshrined in all collective agreements, overriding existing and more generous sick leave benefits.

The legislation allows the government to override the “statutory freeze” provisions of the Public Service Labour Relations Act.

This clause ensures expired contracts are frozen or remain in place until a new agreement is reached. The Supreme Court has argued that such freeze provisions, which ensure employers don’t change terms and conditions of work while bargaining is underway, “fosters the exercise of the right of association.”