Civil Service Master Agreement Negotiations Reach an Impasse

Dear Civil Service Member,

As many of you are aware, Civil Service negotiations began on October 2, 2012 and continued until yesterday, March 4, 2013. There have been approximately 20 days of negotiations, many of which until very recently focused on dealing with non-monetary, operational provisions of the Collective Agreement.

During the last few sessions, considerable time was spent discussing wages and other issues which the employer viewed as monetary, such as vacations, mileage, meals and also importantly, the continuation of the enhanced job security provisions which were negotiated in 2010 and continue to provide essential job protection for our members.

The employer does not agree to provide any monetary improvements beyond salary increases of 2, 2.5 and 3% in a three-year agreement and agrees to only a slight increase in shift and weekend premiums. Also, the employer does not agree to extend the present job security provisions beyond March 31, 2014.

Due to outstanding matters such as hours of work, vacation improvements, mileage, meal and premium adjustments, classification concerns and the employer’s position on job security provisions, we concluded the March 4th bargaining session without a package that the union believes can be recommended to the membership for acceptance.

The union is now in the process of arranging to meet with the Bargaining Unit Negotiating Council (BUNC) at the earliest possible date to evaluate the present state of negotiations to determine if outstanding matters should be voted on by the membership and forwarded to interest arbitration.

We appreciate your patience throughout the last few months while we have tried to secure the best possible agreement for our members. We will be in touch again shortly.

Union Negotiating Committee

Clerical Bargaining Unit

Beth Hingley          the.hingleys@ns.sympatico.ca

Donna Jean MacLean    macleadj@gov.ns.ca

Professional Bargaining Unit

Stephen Newson     newsonst@gov.ns.ca

David Brewster      brewstdr@gov.ns.ca

Technical Services Bargaining Unit

Meg Campbell    marguerit.campbell@gmail.com

Dustin Rioux    riouxdr@gov.ns.ca

Keiren Tompkins, Chief Negotiator

424-4063 or 1-877-556-7438

ktompkins@nsgeu.ca