Update
30 July 2013 - Canadian Foreign Service Officers to Picket the Prime Minister’s Office to Protest Government's Rejection of Binding Arbitration
In their 18th week of job action, Canadian Foreign Service Officers in Ottawa will hold a mass picket outside the Prime Minister’s Office (Langevin Block) at 80 Wellington Street on Tuesday, July 30th from 11:30am to 1:30pm to show their profound disappointment at the Government's refusal to enter into binding arbitration to resolve this labour dispute.
“PAFSO has made every reasonable effort to resolve this situation, including by accepting three of the six preconditions the Government sought to impose on a free arbitration process,” said PAFSO President Tim Edwards. “Treasury Board’s other preconditions were so paralyzing that they would have predetermined the outcome in the Government’s favour. Minister Clement’s rejection of arbitration on July 26 shows he is not interested in a fair contest. It should now be evident to all Canadians that the Government bears sole and complete responsibility for the severe and mounting impacts of this strike – on tourism, on education, and on the agricultural sector.”
The Canadian Foreign Service has been without a contract since June 2011. The issue at hand remains PAFSO's request for equal pay for equal work. Specifically, the union is seeking wage adjustments to keep Foreign Service officer pay in line with comparable employment groups in the federal government, including lawyers, economists, policy analysts, and commerce officers, who perform the same work – often side-by-side with Foreign Service officers. At present, Foreign Service officers are paid $3,000 to $14,000 less per year. One of Minister Clement’s preconditions was to disallow PAFSO from making these arguments to the arbitrator.
The Government has reached tentative agreements in two other long-outstanding contract negotiations during the last month, and returned to the table yesterday to address a third. PAFSO is one of the smallest unions in the federal government. Equal pay for our members could be achieved for $4.2 million over a three-year contract – 1.5% of the impact this strike is having on the tourism sector alone. PAFSO can only conclude that the Government is behaving prejudicially toward the Foreign Service and is therefore negotiating in bad faith.
“Our offer of binding arbitration still stands, including with the three preconditions we accepted,” said Mr. Edwards.
