Finance committee  Over the last several rounds of negotiations, I think we have been fiscally responsible with our membership and with the government. I think we need to step away from this notion about the private sector versus the public sector. I can tell you, I have members who make less becau

Finance committee  Do you think, sir, that this should be a race to the bottom? Do you think that your employees should be making less? From my perspective, as the president of the PSAC, I don't believe that my membership deserve concessions. I believe they have strong collective agreements. I beli

Finance committee  What I'd like to say is I think the President of the Treasury Board, quite frankly, enhances the toxic work environment. He is out in the press talking about his employees, my members, abusing sick leave, surfing the net. He has utter disregard for them, and I think, quite frankl

Finance committee  In the past, the employer would say they want these individuals designated. We would say no, there would be a discussion, we would go, and the decision would be made. Now the government will have the unfettered right to determine who is deemed to be essential and who is not, with

Finance committee  First of all, I find that very hard to believe. I would question what the manager is doing and why the manager is getting a performance bonus if in fact they have employees surfing the net all day. That would be my first question. In the workplace where I come from, the Canada R

Finance committee  Certainly, if the Supreme Court finds in favour of labour.... I asked the question myself of Treasury Board when I said it was going to the Supreme Court. I asked them why they would put this in the omnibus bill. Treasury Board indicated that they were seeking intervenor status.

Finance committee  Actually, sir, it wasn't very devastating because at that time they had what was called a LAD, or least affected department, and a MAD, or most affected department. Where they downsized, we were able to do an alternation process, and that's how the workforce adjustment evolved. T

Finance committee  Actually, it's an extensive process. When individuals are hired into the federal government, that's an extensive process in and of itself. It's not simply an interview. Usually, there’s a written examination, then an interview, then reference checks. The individual comes in and

Finance committee  Thank you very much. Certainly I appreciate that in terms of the EI, but there are many other departments that are suffering from that as well. We're doing a lot of work with respect to mental health in the workplace, because you have what I call the survivor syndrome. I don't k

Finance committee  You know, there are some difficulties. We've had 20,000 positions that have been cut. There were many more than that in terms of affected letters, so I think it's a bit precarious right now. There are services that have been cut from Canadians, such as the Veterans Affairs office

Finance committee  If that's not bad enough, Bill C-4 expands the current limits on what the public interest commission and arbitration boards can consider when making their awards. I just want to mention what the worst of it is. Policy grievances were introduced when the Public Service Labour Rel

Finance committee  Thank you. At the outset, I want to make it clear that the changes in Bill C-4 to the Public Service Labour Relations Act were introduced without any consultation whatsoever with labour, and this, quite frankly, is unprecedented. The government ignored the broad consultation

Status of Women committee  The solution to sexual harassment in the workplace is that the employer has an obligation to have a safe working environment, and—

Status of Women committee  No, no. Go ahead, Bob.

Status of Women committee  It is not that job cuts cause sexual harassment. The question was why don't people come forward about sexual harassment. What I was trying to convey is that women are afraid to come forward and say they have been sexually harassed because of what's going on within their workpla