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Update - February 2nd, 2012 Mediation between the NEU and the Government has been scheduled for February 19-21, 2012. The last round of negotiations between the NEU and the Government of Nunavut took place from August 8th to August 10th, 2011. Click here for updates (detailed history of negotiations to date) Click here for updates (unresolved demands that have been sent to mediation) Negotiating team members' names:
Update - August 22nd, 2011 From August 8-10, 2011 Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Employees Union met for their 5th Round of Negotiations for the GN- NEU Collective Agreement. Both negotiating teams agreed to new contract language for Group 2 (Correctional Workers) and a few minor administrative alterations. By the end of negotiations the Chief Negotiator for GN stated that there seems to be no movements on various issues as a result he will advise Minister Shewchuk to respond to NEU's April 8th, 2011 request for mediation. On August 16th NEU received that reply from the Minister. The Minister agreed to one of the Union's proposed candidates as mediator. The mediator will be Mr. Vince Ready. Both parties agreed that the GN will request for dates for mediation to as soon as possible. In the meantime, NEU and PSAC will be working together to start a Strike Mandate vote from the membership which if successful will give the Union a strong position when we meet with the GN negotiating team in mediation. As well, this week, NEU and GN will be meeting to continue to negotiate the Essential Services Agreement. Update - June 16th, 2011 Re: Update on Government of Nunavut (GN) Negotiations Dear NEU members of the GN bargaining unit, Since our last update, NEU has been involved on many different aspects with negotiating a collective agreement with the Government of Nunavut. After NEU's negotiating team walked away from the negotiating table on April 8th, we applied for mediation to the Minister Responsible for the Public Service Act (Minister Tootoo) along with an application to PSAC for a strike mandate vote which is the usual next steps in the process to achieving a collective agreement. On May 6th, we received the Minister's reply which was a request to forgo mediation and continue with negotiations. I accepted this invitation in the course of a CBC interview. Since then both negotiators have been trying to agree on dates for this next round of negotiations. We are anticipating mid-September dates at this point. Also, we have noted some changes that may have some effect on our negotiations. They include the change with the Minister Responsible for the Public Service Act (this happened twice since we started negotiating last September when Mr. Shewchuk was replaced by Mr. Tootoo who was replaced with Mr. Shewchuk); a change with the Deputy Minister of Finance (Mr. Ma to Mr. D'Arcy); & a change with the Nunavut Arctic College President (Mr. Vandermeulen). As well, I have been negotiating the Essential Services agreement that seems never-ending and very time consuming given the amount of re-organizing that GN has undertaken since 2001. For now NEU is doing more research into our financial proposals and developing counter-proposals for GN's not-so-agree-able proposals so that we can be ready for the next round of negotiations. In solidarity, Douglas M. Workman President Nunavut Employees Union Update - April 7th & 8th, 2011 NEU and GN entered the third day of negotiations. NEU presented their proposals. The GN negotiating committee has presented the Union with an offer which your negotiating team is rejecting. The employer has rejected almost every proposal the Union has presented and has offered some minor movement on a northern allowance and economic increases as follows: The GN came back with a Northern Allowance and Appendix B Proposal that included the following: Northern Allowance
Salary increase offer is the following: 0% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2011 1% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2012 1% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2013 1% increase pay line effective April 1st, 2014 GN Negotiation Committee has rejected our proposals on annual leave improvements that their managers gave themselves following the last round of negotiations. The GN has unilaterally substituted a new Health care Plan without consulting with the Union. They have rejected any improvements to the Medical or Dental plans. We have proposed renewing incentives to retain Health care worker which have also been rejected. During negotiations for the last collective agreement the Parties, in good faith we thought, agreed to back end load the collective agreement on rates of pay and put a process in place to FINALLY resolve the ongoing re-negotiation for the Northern Allowance (MoU #9). This time they want to use the last economic increase to compensate employees for the first six months of this agreement and they have rejected all of the specific recommendations made by their consultants to develop a Northern Allowance formula. We believe that we are worth more than the managers are offering and we will be applying for mediation to get the help we need to get this dispute resolved. On April 8th, our Union negotiating team walked away from the negotiating table to seek a strike mandate vote from the NEU membership of the Government of Nunavut bargaining unit and to file for mediation. Re: Update on Government of Nunavut (GN) Negotiations Update - April 5th, 2011 Today Government of Nunavut and NEU negotiating teams started their 4th round of negotiations. GN presented a package of proposals that included their initial monetary position which was 0% increase in pay for the next four years and no changes to the Nunavut Northern Allowance. The Union negotiating team spent the afternoon reviewing the Employer's package of proposals. The next meeting of both negotiating teams is scheduled for Wednesday, April 6 in the morning. Update - April 6th, 2011 April 6 saw both negotiating teams meeting so that the Union could share its share thoughts of the Employer's package from the previous day. Some of the topics were the proposal on leave entitlements transferring from day to hours; the NNA Report (on our website)which was created as a product of MOU#9; Relief Workers' entitlements; Casual Workers' entitlements; Term Employees' entitlements; Group 2 (Correctional Workers); Group 3 (College Educators); Group 5 (Healthcare Workers); MOU#8 and Great West Life Insurance programs (Article 37). As well, we shared that the financial numbers that the Employer had tabled on April 5th (the zero - zero stuff) were not conducive for ratification of a new collective agreement for members of NEU. February 2011 Re: Update on Government of Nunavut (GN) Negotiations Dear NEU members of the GN bargaining unit, The Nunavut Employees Union negotiating team has completed 3 rounds of negotiations. The first round was from September 20 - 24, 2010 where NEU presented their package of proposals that had been approved at our collective bargaining conference in December 2009 (this package is on our website). The Employer presented a non-monetary set of proposals. It was noted that any proposal that was monetary or perceived to have a cost was not responded to by the Employer other than to say it was monetary and it would be discussed later. The outcome from round 1 was: 1. Union's proposal with Article 38 was agreed; 2.some grammatical, and reference "typos" changes of the administrative order were agreed to in Articles 2, 15, 18, 22, 24, 26, 28, 35, 38, 40, 52, Group 3 and Group 5; Employer agreed to the Union's proposal regarding the implementation of MOU#11 in the current collective agreement which modified Group 6 School Year Employees. The second round of negotiations was from October 24 - 29, 2010. During this round there were more discussions with some counter-proposals and information / evidence being presented around certain topics and proposals like casual hire, operational requirements, cancellation of approved vacation leave, "IQ" days, Personal Leave Without Pay, separate cheques, Criminal Charges, Group 3 (Nunavut Arctic College Educators), & Group 5 (Health Care Workers). The outcome from round 2 was: new contract language agreed to regarding "operational requirements" (Article 17); new contract language agreed to regarding "Cancellation of Approved Vacation Leave" (Article 18); increase in the number of days for Duty Travel per diem eligibility and commercial accommodations (Article 41); & new contract language agreed to concerning working outside one's job description (Article 32). The third round of negotiations was from December 12 - 17, 2010. During this round NEU presented a more specific monetary package. As well further counter proposals and discussion took place around proposals like Group 2 (Employees at the Correctional Facilities), Group 3 ( College Educators), Criminal Charges, Group 5 (Health Care Workers) and the Union's proposal on maternity & parental leave modifications. The basic elements of the Union's monetary package of proposals were: 5 % increase per year effective October 1st, 2010 Fix the gap in the pay grid that exists between Pay Range 11 and Pay Range 12 Implementation of a new and improved Nunavut Northern Allowance that would honour by grandfathering (or grand parenting) existing levels if the allowance was to decrease upon implementation. This allowance is based upon the study that is referenced in MOU # 9 of the current collective agreement. That study is also available on our website entitled "NNA Review - Final Report". Vacation Travel Assistances (aka VTAs) The outcome from round 3 was: agreement on a new MOU regarding a Union - Management committee to discuss training & uniforms for Group 2 (Employees at Correctional Facilities); Employer agreed to the Union's proposal regarding the implementation of MOU#10 in the current collective agreement which modified Group 2 (Employees at Correctional Facilities) & agreement to changes in maternity + parental leave provisions. Our next round of negotiations is during the week of April 5th, 2011 where we are anticipating more discussions about the outstanding proposals with our non-monetary package and all of our monetary proposals. The challenge that NEU and the membership finds itself in this environment of uncertainty with so many different factors at play notwithstanding that the GN is working at a about a 30% vacancy rate. For now, in solidarity, Douglas M. Workman President Nunavut Employees Union → back to top |
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