Negotiations for a new Collective Agreement between the Government of Nunavut and the Nunavut Employees Union/PSAC continued last week in Iqaluit.
Talks were assisted by veteran arbitrator Lorne Slotnick, who agreed to act as mediator to help bridge the parties to a new agreement.
Bargaining between the Employer and the Union has been cordial and the parties have reached consensus on a number of articles.
However, your Union is concerned that many issues identified as top priorities by the membership remain unresolved. These include:
- Increase in paid leave for traditional Inuit pursuits
- Improvements to the Inuktut Language Allowance
- An end to the over-use of Casual employees
- Mandatory rest periods (minimum 8 hours of turnaround time between shifts)
- Equitable distribution of overtime, call back and standby opportunities
- Ending the contracting out of bargaining unit work and repatriating that work to Nunavummiut
- Increase to the Continuous Service Bonus that truly incentivizes the retention and recruitment of employees
- Improvement to the Nunavut Northern Allowance for all communities
- Wage increases that meet or exceed inflation
The GN and the Union have set aside another week of bargaining in each of August and September. If a deal is not reached by early September, it may be delayed until after a new government is elected. Territorial elections are expected to be called in late September.
YOUR BARGAINING TEAM
Jason Rochon, NEU President
Amanda Arsenault
Eunice Kripanik-Panigayak
Alex McConnachie
Paul Puqiqnak
Marianne Uqayuittuq
Daniel Kinsella, NEU Executive Director
Saïd Apali, PSAC Research Officer
Gail Lem, PSAC Negotiator