Sick Days Come Into Question

Public servants’ number of sick days are ‘unsustainable’: Clement

BILL CURRY AND JOHN IBBITSON

OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Jun. 10 2013, 12:38 PM EDT

Last updated Monday, Jun. 10 2013, 12:54 PM EDT

The Conservative government is taking aim at sick leave in the public service, where it says the absenteeism rate of 18.2 days a year is more than two-and-a-half times the the private sector average.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement outlined the new policies Monday in the foyer of the House of Commons, releasing the first details on plans that were hinted at in the March 2013 budget.

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Mr. Clement wants to replace the existing rules, which haven’t been changed since 1970, with two new programs. A short-term disability system will be put in place for workers with temporary illnesses.

The long-term disability program will be reformed with an aim to improve reintegration into the workplace.

Mr. Clement points out that the current system of banked sick days leads to an absenteeism rate that is well above the average of 6.7 days in the private sector.

“That is simply unsustainable for any employer that intends to run a modern, high-performing and effective work force,” said Mr. Clement.

The minister argues that not only is the current system a problem for taxpayers, it is not fair to employees.

Relying on banked sick days is an “inefficient and haphazard” way of managing human resources, according to the minister, because it does not involve case management and rehabilitation support.

“It’s also unfair to employees. If you are stricken with a sudden illness and you need an operation that will force you to be off work for three or four months, but you don’t have enough sick days, you are simply out of luck,” he said.

According to the minister, 11 per cent of public servants do not have any banked sick days and nearly 60 per cent don’t have enough sick days to cover them until the 13-week mark, when long-term disability insurance kicks in. This is seen by the government as discriminatory toward newer and younger employees.

It is not clear exactly what the change in policy will mean for sick days and whether there will be an annual amount set aside.

This latest government proposal will become part of the bargaining mix when negotiations get seriously under way in 2014. Changing the rules surrounding sick leave and disability will require changes to collective agreements, many of which expire in 2015.

Monday’s announcement is the latest tranche in a serious of reforms and proposed reforms aimed at saving money and improving productivity.

Previous changes included requiring workers to foot half the cost of pension programs, eliminating voluntary severance for workers who quit their jobs and implementing mandatory performance management reviews.

The changes – combined with consecutive years of budget cuts in federal departments – have led to a sometimes hostile relationship between the government and public sector unions. The largest federal union – the Public Service Alliance of Canada – has run several versions of a campaign called “Harper Hates Me” that criticizes Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Mr. Clement notes that at annual cost of $43-billion, spending on public sector pay and benefits is the most significant federal expenditure.

Labour(Union) Issues In Saskatchewan

With the review that currently is ongoing in Saskatchewan and the whole labour movement uproar, I thought I would re-post my common sense approach to the union problems in Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, unions of course will hate this but it better represents the workers, saving families upwards of $4,000/year in union dues.


At any length this is my proposal in a nutshell;

I have suggested that the government bring in Right To Work Legislation. This would not be quite what they have in some States, it goes further to protect the worker than their legislations do. As part of this Right To Work Legislation each worker hired within a union environment will have the right to join union or not. The worker, if so wishing not to join the union, would then become part of a fund or pool that holds a labour relations firm on retainer for when their collective bargaining agreement is about to expire.

In the legislation, when the collective agreement is one year from expiring it would mandate that both sides get to the table. Your lawyers would sit down with the employer for up to 6 months to try to bring about an agreement fair to both sides. If no agreement is in place at the end of six months then a mediator would come in and try for 3 months to get a deal in place. After three months and still no agreement then a move to binding arbitration with an arbitrator brought in from outside the province and who is acceptable to both sides. A deal would be in place by the end of the contract and the he said/she said political games would be taken out of the equation. There would be no strike actions taken as contracts would be done before any labour agreement ends, which further brings down the whole ability to play political game by both labour and employer.

Now you may say how is that fair to workers? Well they get the same protection that they currently have under unions but without the huge expense and games unions play. Many union members are charged well over $1000/year(some over 2,000) in union dues with no choice on how the unions leadership spend the money. Under this particular Right To Work legislation you could cut those union dues from over $1000 to maybe less than $100/year. Imagine what this change would do for the families? Having an extra $1000 in your pocket each year is nothing to sniff at, you can use it for what ever you see fit.

With this approach, you would not have the hard feelings between employer and employees as you know the process will be the same each and every time your contract comes due. The lawyers and employer will work together to make sure any agreement is fair and will ensure the growth of the company or if government make government more streamlined and sustainable.

Unions of course would fight this tooth and nail saying that labour cannot be represented nearly as well by a firm and to this I would answer that lawyers are trained to negotiate, this is what they do when it comes to labour relations. They are more likely to come to an agreement without all the background noise that union leadership puts out before and during negotiations. If the union leadership is really looking out for their members then they should have no problem with them choosing this path and keeping $1000 in their pocket on a yearly basis? The worker can then choose how they spend their money, not like how it is today under the unions where there is no vote for advertising, political contributions or the like.

We have to look at the role unions play in today's society, are they really needed any longer? We have labour relations boards, workers compensation boards and more. These boards do what the unions claim they do for the average person in the workplace, so why have the redundancy? The unions have served their purpose in the past, but in order to build an economic powerhouse where labour and employer have the same goals, we must leave the unions in the past. It is a whole new world out there and we must be able to compete on a global scale and I feel this is a step in the right direction.

There is no doubt that unions hold back our ability to compete, they protect the weak workers, those with no work ethic and hold back the ones who are hard working and would ultimately rise to the top in any other system. With this Right To Work Legislation our economic output would see a tremendous increase because the best people will rise to the top thereby creating an environment where people know that they need to work in order to succeed and therefor production would increase dramatically.

Far too long union has held us back, it is 2012 and it's time for change, let's change our labour legislation to better protect the worker and create a society more in tune with the ever changing global economic landscape. But first things first, we must be willing to talk to friends and family about this, without that grassroots movement things don't change. If you agree with my thoughts do not be afraid to write your MLA, your MP, the Premier and even the Prime Minister, this is how change starts.

This plan of course would need a lot of legal polish but it is a framework that could take us through to the next century in my opinion. Why is it that labour and business must butt heads are we not more civilized than that?

An example of this approach is say CUPE....29,000 members, each of them paying at least $1000/year union dues. That is $29,000,000/year revenue for the big business....I mean union, taken over 4 years equals $116,000,000!!! This total is probably very conservative as I know many CUPE members pay much more than $1,000/year.


Now to have a law firm under retainer may cost ten grand or so, and then in the 3rd year of bargaining maybe costs of $300,000 more or less. Total four year commitment is $330,000.

SAVINGS is $115,670,000 All of this money back into the pockets of the working men and women. Money better spent by them, how they want and not by some union figure head playing political games! Common sense says that the workers would be farther ahead with the money in their pockets

My Fix For Big Labour!

O.K., I may have said this before but for anyone new to reading this blog I just want to explain my theory on how to fix the problem with big labour.

First thing is we need to figure out that there is a problem to begin with, if our politicians can't figure this out then they need to be ousted.  Once we have decided we need to do something about the contracts signed with big labour then we need to make the changes to fix the problem.

$200 billion dollars, that is how much the federal government has in Unfunded Pension Liabilities going forward. That means there is no money set aside to pay for the pensions that are on the horizon.  This needs to be addressed now and not later.

First thing that needs to be looked at is something called "right to work legislation"  This simply implies that if you have a job in any sector be it private or public that you have the right to join the union or not.  This is being done in a lot of States right now and is proving out to be very successful, in fact it has made it possible for many states to show budget surpluses this year all the while the federal government is drowning in debt and on the verge of defaulting.

When you get a job, is it not a basic human right to decide whether you want to be represented by a labour group or not?  I mean this is a democratic country is it not?  If I were to go and get a job tomorrow as a welder at a local steel plant, why should I be forced to join a union?  Can I not keep my union dues and just go and do my job, that is all I want.  I do not feel my money should go to pay for a bunch of bureaucrats in the union so that they can get paid 24/7/365, even though the contract only expires every 3-4 years.  I want to be able to spend my $1000/year how I see fit, be it on my family, a vacation, whatever but I will have the right to do what I want with my own money.  I should not be forced to pay for something I do not believe in, that in my mind, is not democratic.

Now some will say without unions the labour pool will be taken advantage of by corporations, and to that I say we already have labour standard board that for on intents and purpose do the same thing that the unions do.  And if the worker feels something is wrong, the labour board is there to step in and represent the worker.

But what about negotiations?  You can't expect every person to negotiate their own contract?  No, I don't, but what I do think is very possible, is for the worker to vote for hiring a law firm to represent the group as a whole.  This is democratic and the law firm would only get paid during negotiations(other than a small yearly retainer).  The cost to the worker would be far less than what they pay in dues on a yearly basis meaning more take home pay.

The next step would to be to change pensions.  The worker needs to fund more of their own pensions, it is done this way by the private sector and is proven to be sustainable. Especially when it comes to the public sector, the taxpayers should not be on the hook for large pensions that you would not get in the private sector.  The public and private sector need to be more aligned on the pension and benefit front, what you get should not vary that much between the two.  With employees paying more into their pension it would alleviate the future liability that the country has and make sure that the pension is there for you when you do go to retire.

As you can see the worker is still represented, and more than likely represented better by a law firm than say some Joe who rose up through the ranks and does not know law at all.  This is a common sense approach to one of the problems facing our country.  I know that a final version of this would need some polish but I feel it is a great starting point and is a large step in the right direction.  If you agree, talk to your MP, MLA, council members, we need to make these changes for the whole of our country.

Mayor Ford In Toronto, a Sign of The Times?

With the election of Mayor Rob Ford, the city took a hard right turn politically speaking.  Now what does this mean to the rest of Ontario, organized labour and the rest of Canada.

For too long the most populous cities in this country have been run by steadfast socialists and for far too long they have bled the coffers dry and made the rest of Canada pay for their "love of humanity"  Now comes along a Mayor who is set to take on the big unions in his city, he has put them on notice that there are going to be changes coming and that their sitting at the trough is about to end.  Toronto is run by big labour, the provincal and local governments made their bed with these guys and now it is about to do a full 180.  Ford is standing up to labour and has publicly stated that the people of Toronto will stand for long strikes, if that is what is needed to reign in the expenses brought on by union contracts.  He knows what it is going to take to curb expense and lets face it labour is the problem, it is the super lucrative contracts that previous administrations signed that have come to bite the people of Toronto in the butt.  Something has to give and it is time that labour really looks at itself and figure out that they are the problem.(more on that in my next post)

Now, what does this mean for the rest of the province and Canada?  Rob Ford has listened to the people of his city and it taking appropriate actions.  He will be smeared publicly by big labour, he will be hated by many on the far left but he will stand tall knowing he is doing the right thing by the taxpayers.  The tax base has had enough and they signaled that by voting Ford in as mayor, they want change and change now!  Now with Ontario staring at large debt loads and having to take equalization payments from Ottawa, the taxpayers seem to be ready to do the same on the provincial level.  It looks like the Conservatives will become government and maybe by a large majority.  This means that the changes being taken at the city level can now carry on to the provincial level.  The people are speaking up and it is time for the politicians to hear their voices.

Federally is a different situation, we have had a conservative government for some time but finally have a majority to work with.  They have already set sail on a bunch of changes coming.  They are freezing most hiring, getting rid of the boondoggle gun registry as well as getting tougher on crime.  Now they are starting to look at themselves and try to figure out where cuts can come from to bring down the debt.  Canada is in a great position when compared to the rest of the world but that doesn't mean we should rest on our laurels, we need to keep at it and reduce the debt load that our children will have to pay for.  This means pensions must be looked at as well as the benefits.  This is a large portion of the annual budget and needs to be addressed as they are unfunded in the years to come and myself as a taxpayer do not think I should have to pay for someone's retirement when I have to save my whole life in order to retire.  Typically government employees are paid much better, have better benefits and pension plans than that of an equal working in the private sector.

All in all, this movement that seems to be sweeping the country is not only good for us but also for our children and their children.  We live within our means and should demand that our governments do the same.

Sask Teachers and Government Tentative Agreement, Yet Another Rant!

Now, is it just me or could this deal have been reached without the strike action, the withdrawal of services and hard feelings?  A little common sense would go a very long way in my opinion! This is yet another example of the union misleading it's members.  This all could have been done in a matter of hours with a law firm representing the members meeting with the government.  Instead these teachers have to pay their union dues each and every month for three years in a row just to have a deal that easily could have been reached without the union brass involvement!

Teachers, I hope you are listening here, get rid of your union heads, put a law firm on retainer and negotiate that way.  You will pay maybe 1/100 of what you do right now to have a law firm on retainer.  Then take that money you are saving and spend it on your family.  Why not have that money in your pockets rather than employing people year round, year after year who are just puppets for the NDP and big labour?

Stop being pawns in a much larger game, you have been used by your union and big labour to try to get more votes for the labour friendly NDP.  Vote out your union and get yourself a law firm who will represent you properly when it comes to negotiations.

Sask. teachers closer to new contract

BY ANGELA HALL, LEADER-POST STAFF JULY 6, 2011

STORY

• PHOTOS ( 1 )

Teachers walk along Lakeshore Drive in Wascana Centre enroute to Victoria Park after a rally in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative building in Regina on May 26, 2011. Teachers from the public and catholic systems are on their second day of a two-day job action.

Photograph by: Don Healy, Leader-Post files

REGINA — Saskatchewan teachers are closer to a new contract with the release Wednesday of a special mediator’s report that recommends salaries be brought in line with the western Canadian average.

The report recommends the general wage hike that was initially proposed — 5.5 per cent over three years — be accepted, noting it’s a formula the government has used to settle other public sector agreements. But mediator Richard Hornung recommended further wage hikes through “market adjustments” based on the average of teacher salaries in Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta.

For teachers at the bottom end of the pay scale, the recommended market adjustment is an additional five per cent. For teachers at the top end of the pay grid, it’s 3.34 per cent.

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the government-trustee bargaining committee issued a statement saying the report’s recommendations will form the basis of a tentative agreement.

Education Minister Donna Harpauer said she is optimistic that the two sides will reach a deal, with meetings expected to take place later this summer.

“The government accepts the report and the recommendations made by the mediator,” Harpauer said in an interview.

“I have said in the past that although our offer was 5.5 (per cent), we were definitely willing to put resources on the table to look at market adjustments.”

Read more:http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Sask+teachers+closer+contract/5061068/story.html#ixzz1RQskG6uK

Imagine That, Another Strike Notice In Saskatchewan!

Saskatchewan Government Insurance workers serve strike notice for Thursday

Topics : 

Saskatchewan Government Insurance ,Thursday.The Canadian Office , Professional Employees Union

Published on July 6, 2011

The Canadian Press  

REGINA — Some workers with Saskatchewan Government Insurance could be in a legal position to strike by Thursday.

The Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union served SGI with 48-hours strike notice Tuesday afternoon.

Wages are the key issue in the dispute.

Management has offered 5.5 per cent over three years while the union is asking for nearly 10 per cent over the same time frame.

Andrew Cartmell, president of SGI, says the corporation has a comprehensive plan in place to ensure customer needs are met in the event of job action.

Cartmell also says SGI remains committed to the collective bargaining process and is still hopeful of reaching a resolution.

SGI's network of motor licence issuers and independent brokers will continue assisting customers, he said, adding online services will remain available.

Well B.C. Your Teachers Are Next!

Aproximately 28,000 members of the B.C. Teachers Federation have voted 90 per cent in favour of job action and president Susan Lambert says the overwhelming mandate sends a strong message to government as the union seeks a new contract.

She says the province's bargaining agent continues to demand major concessions but teachers are prepared to refuse all administrative duties if there's no deal by September.

Education Minister George Abbott is not surprised at support for the vote but says his ministry can't budge from its requirement of a net zero wage mandate.

However, he believes job action is not inevitable, as long as both sides remain at the bargaining table.

Issues include class size, wages and adequate school funding.

SOCIALISM DOESN'T WORK!

Just when will these people figure it out?  There was a stat yesterday about the last few years of job creation in Greece.  Not one, ahem, NOT ONE private sector job was created in Greece, at the same time  a couple hundred thousand civil service jobs were created.  This has all led up to what is going on today and the out of control spending has finally caught up to them.  The unfortunate thing is that this has had a big affect on the world markets, even though Greece is a very small player it has sent jitters through the market and caused the markets to slide costing people billions.  


Now, imagine a big fish like the USA?  If they do not control their spending they too will be in the same dire situation but with far, far more reaching affects.  If they continue the way they are with the spending it will take down the whole world's economy. 


 Let this be a warning for socialists out there everywhere as well as spending out of control governments! 

Greece approves austerity bill, setting in motion brutal budget cuts

 

 

BY HENRY CHU, LOS ANGELES TIMES JUNE 29, 2011 11:01 AM

 

 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 2 )

 

 

More Images »

 

A protester holds a Greek flag as he confronts riot police in front of the parliament in Athens June 29, 2011.

Photograph by: Yannis Behrakis, Reuters

Greece has approved an austerity bill that helps pull its debt-ridden country back from the brink of an immediate default. After days of public unrest and impassioned debate, the Greek parliament voted 155-138 on Wednesday in favor of the controversial bill that authorizes $40 billion in brutal budget cuts and tax hikes over the next several years for a nation already reeling from previous belt-tightening measures.

The tense legislative showdown came as the country continued to squirm in the grip of a 48-hour nationwide strike and as tens of thousands of angry protesters thronged downtown Athens in noisy opposition to the austerity package. Police in riot gear scuffled with some demonstrators and tried to contain the kind of violence that on Tuesday left dozens of people injured, shop windows smashed and tourists running to escape tear-gas fumes.

The government says the new spending cutbacks — some of the toughest in recent memory — are imperative if Greece is to stave off having to declare bankruptcy in a matter of weeks.

Without the new austerity package, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have threatened to withhold the next installment of funds from the financial bailout they granted Greece last year. That would leave Athens unable to pay bills coming due in mid-July.

"The choice is simple: Either we press ahead with the road of change, a road that is difficult, or we choose catastrophe," Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told parliament before the roll-call vote. "We choose the first. We ask you to give Greece a historic opportunity to move ahead and change."

He warned lawmakers that without the austerity plan, Greece would face a deepened recession, heightened unemployment and crumbling living standards.

But Wednesday's nail-biting vote is not the end of the issue. A follow-up bill that details how the austerity program will be implemented is to come up for a vote on Thursday; it, too, must pass in order for the next tranche of rescue loans to be disbursed.

The EU and the IMF have also insisted on the new austerity plan as a condition for a second bailout for Athens on top of the one they offered last year. With a shrinking economy, empty public coffers and abysmal bond ratings, Greece is effectively shut out from raising money in the private market and needs another lifeline from its European neighbors and the IMF to keep Greece afloat.

EU officials in Brussels are just as eager as Athens to avoid a Greek default, afraid that such an event would roil markets worldwide, hit European banks that hold Greek bonds and cause the debt crisis to spread to other financially shaky Eurozone countries such as Spain and Italy.

But economists question whether Athens can enforce its austerity program in the teeth of major public opposition. In addition to unpopular spending cuts and tax rises, the government has also committed to selling off about $72 billion worth in state assets, including public utilities.

Many analysts openly doubt that Greece will ever be able to pay off loans that far exceed the country's entire economic output and predict that the country will eventually have no choice but to restructure its debt, a form of default. Still, the government's victory in parliament Wednesday, plus a successful vote on the follow-up bill Thursday, should give Athens some breathing space, however brief.

To get the votes he needed, Papandreou faced down a revolt from some members of his own ruling Socialist party, which has a slender five-seat majority in parliament. Ministers resorted to political arm-twisting, threatening dissenters with expulsion from the party if they did not fall in line.

"Voting for these measures, regardless of any reservations, is an important, brave act of political responsibility," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told parliament Tuesday night during a debate that lasted for hours.

Nearly all opposition lawmakers voted against the bill. While acknowledging that cuts are necessary, the main opposition party, New Democracy, argues that the current austerity package will condemn Greece to low growth.

Public outrage presents another obstacle to the government in a land with a history of civil unrest and politically motivated violence. Many ordinary Greeks feel that they are being punished for the bad decisions and corrupt practices of current and past governments.

The demonstrators who have been camping out in Syntagma Square, in the heart of Athens, tried to prevent lawmakers from entering the parliament building for Wednesday's vote.

About 5,000 riot police were on hand to try to contain outbursts of violence, most of it by self-styled anarchists who threw rocks and other projectiles and shattered storefront windows Tuesday. Protesters have also gathered atop the ancient Acropolis, where they unfurled banners urging activists to "organize" and "counterattack."

© Copyright (c) AFP

more:http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Greece+approves+austerity+bill+setting+motion+brutal+budget+cuts/5021240/story.html#ixzz1QgIgQGzP

Had To Know This Was Coming, Same Old Union B.S.

Postal union to fight back-to-work legislation in court

 

 

BY TERESA SMITH, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 29, 2011 10:38 AM

 

STORY

 

• PHOTOS ( 1 )

 

 

The 15-member national executive board of CUPW has decided to take the federal government to court over last week's back-to-work legislation.

Photograph by: Aaron Lynett, National Post

OTTAWA — Letters and bills may returning to your mailbox, but the union representing Canada's postal workers says this fight is far from over.

The 15-member national executive board of CUPW has decided to take the federal government to court over last week's back-to-work legislation.

Nearly 50,000 locked-out Canada Post workers were forced back to their jobs this week under settlement terms arranged by government.

Gerry Deveau, national director for the Ontario region of the CUPW, says Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms contains the right to belong to a union and Canada's labour code protects the right to collective bargaining.

It's on those grounds, the union wants to file a legal challenge, he said.

"The government intervention here is stripping us of those rights," Deveau said.

He said the union will consult with legal counsel Wednesday and for the rest of this week. He said he anticipates launching the challenge by next week.

Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton said Wednesday morning he hadn't heard anything about the possible court case.

"We're focused on delivering the mail and serving Canadians," he said.

The court case will target one of the main sticking points over the bill — the wage settlements.

The government legislated a wage increase of 1.57 per cent, which is lower than the 1.9 per cent that Canada Post had put on the table earlier this month in negotiations with its workers.

"We want to challenge the government legislating us back to work at less than what the corporation offered at a time when the cost of living is far greater than what the government has imposed upon us," Deveau said.

Canada Post locked out its employees on June 14, after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers conducted 12 days of rotating strikes.

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt then introduced the back-to-work legislation.

Opposition MPs condemned the bill as a whole, saying it undermined workers' rights to collective bargaining.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

more:http://www.canada.com/business/Postal+union+fight+back+work+legislation+court/5023096/story.html#ixzz1QgI4dS8V