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METROVANINDEPENDENT.COM
November 2015
NEWS
Robyn Benson, PSAC's national president.
12 federal unions to challenge
Harper’s last budget bill in court
The savings of $900 million was a major plan by defeated Finance
Minister Joe Oliver to balance the budget
Twelve federal public service unions
have filed a legal challenge to the budget
bill passed earlier this year — and the
country's largest such union plans to file
its own challenge Tuesday — arguing
that the bill's plan to save $900 million
by overhauling sick leave and disability
programs violates the country's Charter
of Rights and Freedoms.
Canada's largest public sector union,
the Public Service Alliance of Canada,
confirmed that it plans to file its own court
challenge.
The budget bill was passed in April,
and its proposed changes to federal civil
servants' sick leave provisions are one of
the most contentious issues in talks with
public service unions.
Those talks were temporarily stalled
in May when the Public Service Alliance
of Canada walked away from bargaining
meetings, but Bill C-59 would give the
government the ability to act before the
conclusion of that process, something
unions argue contravenes the Public
Service Labor Relations Act.
"In our view, the por tion of this
legislation dealing with sick leave
Finance Minister Joe Oliver with Stephen Harper.
bargaining is unconstitutional," said a
media release issued Monday by the
Professional Institute of the Public Service
of Canada, one of the 12 unions that filed
Monday's challenge.
"It fundamentally undermines the
constitutionally protected process of
collective bargaining and the right to
strike."
The $900 million in savings expected
with the changes to sick leave was a major
piece o bf