Members’ ‘best interest’ to sign deal: CAPE president
The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) announced on May 17 that it had accepted the Treasury Board’s offer presented on May 3 to compensate federal employees for damages caused by the Phoenix pay system.
The decision was made following a consultation with CAPE’s national executive committee and its membership base, said the union.
“We have spent the last 10 days consulting our members to help form our final decision” said Greg Phillips, CAPE president. “At the end of this exercise, we concluded that it was in our members’ best interest to sign this agreement and give them access to a fast-track process to urgently get compensated for financial and non- financial damages caused by Phoenix.”
In addition to creating a new expeditious process to file a claim to secure compensation, the agreement includes up to five days of annual leave that would be awarded to all CAPE’s members — whether directly impacted by Phoenix or not, for the general aggravation and frustrations caused by the faulty pay system, said CAPE.
Beyond the Phoenix damages agreement, CAPE is pursuing the resolution of remuneration owed to its members and a replacement to the Phoenix pay system installed and faulty since 2016. CAPE sits on the Next Generation HR and Pay Joint Union Management Committee where it is voicing the concerns of its members and working towards accelerating the implementation of an improved pay system, said the union.
The agreement will only apply to federal employees who are part of the core public administration and represented by the bargaining agents that signed on to the agreement, said CAPE.
The offer will benefit more than 70,000 federal employees, in addition to eligible retirees and former employees, said the union.