Why are public service unions filing grievances over the early retirement incentive? 

Article content

Although PSAC is urging caution, the program appears popular out of the gate.

Article content

As of March 8, Treasury Board said about 3,700 public servants had applied for the ERI in the opening days after the online application portal went live. The department hopes to see that number climb much higher before the July deadline.

Article content

The program is estimated to cost around $1.5 billion and will draw its funding from a surplus that was in the federal public service pension plan.

Article content

That detail is a sticking point for the unions.

Article content

Questions over use of the surplus have long been a bone of contention between unions and the government.

Article content

In 2012, after decades of legal wrangling, the Supreme Court ruled the government is not obliged to return any surplus from the public service pension fund back to unions.

Article content

But the issue has resurfaced.

Article content

Article content

The government is required by law to address it and may do so by either pausing contributions or paying the excess into a central account. Both the government and public servants contribute to the pension fund, and worker benefits are fully guaranteed.

Article content

Article content

Unions have accused the government of using the surplus as a “piggy bank” to fund its operations.

Article content

“You’re laying somebody off and using the money they contributed for years to pay for it,” PIPSC president Sean O’Reilly said in an interview.

Article content

In an email, Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), said the ERI amounts to “yet another raid on public servants’ pension fund.”

Article content

CAPE has not launched a policy grievance against the ERI, but Prier said the union is “considering every option” to protect public servants’ retirement savings from the government’s “ideological whims.”

Article content

Bypassing workforce adjustment

Article content

PSAC’s leadership has said it wants to see the surplus funds reinvested in workers, including by “integrating the ERI into the existing workforce adjustment process.”

Article content

That’s the second major concern unions are raising over the ERI.

Article content

“We feel that the government is bypassing the agreed to workforce adjustment process, acting unilaterally,” O’Reilly said. “That’s unacceptable.”

Article content

Workforce adjustment (WFA), a process enshrined in collective agreements since the early 1990s, ensures alternative employment opportunities will be made, where possible, for permanent workers who lose their positions.

Article content

Article content

In a news release, PSAC said because the ERI operates outside the WFA process, workers who choose it could be stripped of important protections, including cash payments based on years of service, known as the transition support measure.

Article content

“My hope with the grievance process is that the government realizes that they’ve gone against those hard-fought protections,” O’Reilly said.

Article content

The question as PSAC sees it is whether ERI is a better option than existing protections already available to public servants.

Article content

For eligible public servants who decide it is indeed a better option, the deadline to apply is July 24. Approved applicants must retire by January 20, 2027.

Article content

With files from Matteo Cimellaro.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Article content

Article content