Foreign service officers plan ‘mass walkout' to protest bad-faith appeal (SEP 18)
OTTAWA — Foreign service officers will stage a mass walkout at noon today to protest the federal government's decision to appeal a decision last week that found it acted in bad faith in the ongoing contract dispute with the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO).
The union announced the plan this morning, saying the mass walkout will be followed by a one-hour picket at Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development headquarters on Sussex Drive.
The Public Service Labour Relations Board upheld PAFSO's bad-faith complaint Friday, ruling that Treasury Board President Tony Clement imposed “unreasonable” preconditions before he would agree to binding arbitration for a new collective agreement.
Following the ruling, PAFSO urged the government to “alter course” and return to the bargaining table to settle the dispute with the 1,388 foreign service workers. Instead, the government filed a notice of appeal of the PSRLB decision with the Federal Court of Canada.
PAFSO said Monday it “deeply regrets” the decision to file the appeal and again urged Treasury Board to “alter its unconstructive approach” and return to the bargaining table.
In June, foreign service officers began strike action at 15 of Canada's biggest visa processing centres around the world, creating massive backlogs in the processing of visa applications.
Tim Edwards, PAFSO's president, said the government's appeal “unnecessarily prolongs what is already one of the longest strikes in federal public service history, at great cost to the Canadian economy and Canada's reputation as a destination for tourism, study and employment, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of visa applicants and prospective immigrants whose lives are being put on hold.”
