CRA Employees Back at Work after Tentative Deal
HALIFAX — More than 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency workers are back at work after the Public Service Alliance of Canada reached a tentative agreement with the CRA overnight.
The new deal is a four-year agreement that includes wage increases, more flexible work hours, and new protections against layoffs.
PSAC-UTE members must still hold a final vote to agree to the new terms. That vote is scheduled to happen in the “coming days.” If it passes, the workers will finally have a contract after more than a year and a half without one.
The wage increases laid out in the agreement will be 12.6 per cent, compounded over the life of the agreement from 2021–2024. Employees would also get a one-time payment of $2,500.
The union says the agreement “also provides significant new protections against layoffs as well as improvements concerning hours of work, telework and seniority.”
It says language in the agreement requires managers to assess remote work requests individually, not by group, and provide written responses explaining their decision.
That means employee rights around remote work arrangements will be protected through a grievance process.
Other issues addressed in the tentative deal include work hours, shift premiums, more inclusive workplaces, protections against contracting out, and others.
“Through long hours of negotiations, the CRA and the PSAC-UTE found ways to compromise and, in doing so, succeeded in reaching a tentative agreement, which is both fair to employees and reasonable for taxpayers,” the CRA says in a statement.
In a statement to its members, the PSAC-UTE called it a “fair contract for members that exceeds the employer’s original offer before the launch of strike action, and provides wage increases above those negotiated by other federal bargaining agents.”