Government Operations committee  I don't know; I don't have that exact figure. I'm not even sure how we would get that information. We could, I suspect, request it from the employer, and they could provide it, but there were enough people who raised the issue that we had the plebiscite.

Government Operations committee  We've tried other things, but the employer said no.

Government Operations committee  For instance, there was the matter of granting employees leave without pay to ensure that they.... I don't want to get too far into the details of this complicated stuff. In terms of continuous employment, if you take a leave of absence for more than three months, you stop accru

Government Operations committee  I'm just answering your question, Ms. Yip.

Government Operations committee  You know....

Government Operations committee  Absolutely, and we made that proposal because there have been issues in the past when people have been called up for service. In the case of the Canada Border Services Agency, which is an employer we deal with directly, there has not been consistency. For example, when the war wa

Government Operations committee  Yes. I've been the union's negotiator for this group since 2007, so I was there in 2012. What happened was that from our perspective—I don't expect these folks to agree—we don't think the employer was properly applying the collective agreement. From our perspective, what was nego

Government Operations committee  As Sandra just said, what we bargain for is people who are working for the government now, not how they come into the government. We've made proposals in bargaining. We have a proposal on the table right now to deal with people accessing leave so they can continue their militar

Government Operations committee  If they're not paying dues, we can't bargain on their behalf.

Government Operations committee  They keep their years of service because they were employees in the public service.

Government Operations committee  If Parliament decided to change the legislation with respect to who is an employee and who is not—and I'm not saying I'm advocating for that, because it's your decision as members—well, okay, but you haven't done that. Consequently, an employee is defined as an employee under the

Government Operations committee  First off, I'm not going to speak on behalf of the elected leadership of the union, but I can tell you my perspective as a negotiator for the union. The union lobbied for years for military time to be included for vacation accrual. With respect to the years of service issue, it

Government Operations committee  I'm a negotiator with PSAC. I've been with the union for about 12 years. I'm here today because, as I understand it, there are members of the committee who may have some questions or are interested in what the union has bargained for with respect to years of service accrual for