Labour board denies striking diplomat union's call for arbitration
he government bargained in bad faith against striking foreign service officers, says a labour relations board adjudicator, but she won’t force the two sides into binding arbitration.
The decision, released today, vindicates the striking union’s complaint against the government, but stops short of giving it the remedy it wanted.
Nevertheless, Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers president Tim Edwards says it’s a “very significant victory.” Although the strike will continue for now, he says the decision adds another layer of pressure on the government to end the impasse.
The union’s offer to go to binding arbitration, he added, still stands.
A finding of bad faith
The union faced off against the Treasury Board at the Public Service Labour Relations Board on Aug. 21 in Ottawa. PAFSO argued that the government had negotiated in bad faith because it had agreed to binding arbitration based on preconditions that essentially would have cut down the union’s main arguments.
Its key point has been that its members are being paid less for doing comparable work to other public servants. Treasury Board representatives had argued instead that the foreign service is a well-paid and “highly sought-after posting” with “generous benefits.”
The government agreed to the union’s offer of binding final arbitration only if, for one thing, it would exclude any comparisons between foreign service officers and other public servant jobs.
“y putting forward conditions which the respondent [Treasury Board] knew or ought to have known could not be accepted by the complainant [PAFSO], the respondent has shut down the complainant and made it unlikely, if not impossible, for the parties to break the impasse between them,” wrote Margaret T.A. Shannon in her decision.
“The only factors a decision maker...would have to consider would be the respondent’s. This is not reflective of the bipartite nature of collective bargaining.”
She also rejected the government’s argument it didn’t need to bargain in good faith because that only applies to traditional bargaining, and binding arbitration is voluntary and separate.
Treasury Board, she said, "violated its duty to bargain collectively in good faith and make every reasonable effort to enter into a collective agreement as required by...the Public Service Labour Relations Act by attempting to impose unreasonable conditions on final and binding determination."
The decision is a “very significant victory for us,” Mr. Edwards said.
“We are pleased with the arbitrator’s ruling and we’re ready now to go back to the table and sit down with Treasury Board. Hopefully this will convince them...that a change of approach is needed, that it’s time to put this thing to rest.”
The union has been in a legal strike position since April 2 and has been gradually withdrawing services since then. It ramped up rotating strikes in June. At the strike’s height, more than 400 of the union’s about 1,388 members were out.
PAFSO represents non-executive diplomats doing trade and political work as well as immigration officers who have been without a contract since July 2011.
“It’s time now for the government to alter its course, and to come back to the negotiating table in good faith this time, so that we can settle this very damaging dispute,” said Mr. Edwards. “Our offer of binding arbitration still stands.”
No arbitration order
Ms. Shannon encouraged the union and government to try again to find a mutually agreeable process to hammer out a final and binding solution to the impasse, if they still can’t solve the dispute at the bargaining table.
But she stopped short of agreeing to the union’s request to order both sides to participate in final and binding arbitration, without the government’s disputed preconditions.
While she rejected Treasury Board’s argument that she has doesn’t have the authority to do that, she refused to use her authority to order up arbitration.
“I do not believe that it is conducive to good labour relations to order parties to participate in final and binding determination when such arbitration is voluntary in the first place," wrote Ms. Shannon.
While the union would have liked the binding arbitration order, it wasn’t necessarily expecting it, said Mr. Edwards. And just because the labour relations board didn’t compel any action, he said, doesn't mean the ruling was toothless.
He said pressure has been building against the government in the six months since the union started withdrawing services.
The strike has also backed up application processing for temporary foreign workers and people hoping to be reunited as permanent residents with family members in Canada.
Mr. Edwards estimated the strike damage is now approaching $1 billion, factoring in all of the affected sectors of the economy.
He said he could understand that the arbitrator chose not predetermine the process by forcing arbitration.
About 150 foreign service officers are off work now, he said, and the strike will continue. The union is targeting priority files for the government, including issues around Syria and Iran. And it’s targeting pull-outs at big immigration processing centres like those in Beijing and Mexico City.
Although the union is not now contemplating a general strike of all its members, Mr. Edwards said “I'm never going to say never.”
A spokesperson for Treasury Board President Tony Clement said the government would release a statement in response to the ruling, but one was not available as of press time on Sept. 13.
NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar was quoted as telling CBC News that his party agreed with the ruling, and urged Mr. Clement to get back to the negotiating table and bargain in good faith.
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