PSAC begins contract talks for National Gallery workers
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) began contract negotiations for over 200 workers at the National Gallery of Canada this week, aiming to match wages and language around job security, seniority, and leave that was established in recent contract negotiations for Treasury Board workers.
Alex Silas, PSAC'S regional executive vice-president for the National Capital Region, said bargaining with the Crown corporation was launched on Thursday. The current contract for workers in the directly chartered local expires on June 30.
“There are roughly 220 members in the bargaining unit, everyone from gallery guides, hosts, program officers, interpreters, setup crew,” Silas said. “Most of the staff in the gallery is represented by PSAC.”
Silas said PSAC is looking to “catch up” to standards around scheduling, job security and leave that have been established elsewhere in the federal public service and within the museum sector.
“I think the Treasury Board tables definitely set a pattern across the federal public service, if not across all sectors,” Silas said, referring to the tentative contract agreements that were reached between the union and the federal government for more than 120,000 workers earlier this month. “It's about reaching parity with the new language that was agreed at Treasury Board, including telework rights, wages, but there's some other stuff where the language in the National Gallery agreement has just been lagging far behind existing standards.”
Seniority rights around shift scheduling are one area where the contract is lagging, Silas said.
“Seniority in scheduling is a fairly common practice across the museum sector. I believe all of our other museum units at PSAC have seniority in their scheduling language, except for the National Gallery,” Silas said.
While wages haven't been tabled by either side, Silas said they will definitely be a factor in negotiations. He added the average salary of a PSAC employee at the National Gallery of Canada is just over $62,000.
“I think it's fair to say that we'll be seeking at the very least parity with what was achieved at the Treasury Board tables,” Silas said.
PSAC'S deals with Treasury Board include wage increases of 12.6 per cent compounded over four years and a one-time, pensionable lump sum payment of $2,500.
Silas said the team will continue negotiations in mid-june and is waiting to hear back about more dates throughout the summer.
“It's way too early to tell when we might get close to a deal, but we're hoping to bargain through the summer and hoping that the employer is going to be open to meeting us on our proposals around parity with the rest of the museum sector,” he said.
I think it's fair to say that we'll be seeking at the very least parity with what was achieved at the Treasury Board tables.