PSAC filed a policy grievance on March 12, 2024, for employer violations of several provisions in the PA collective agreement. Significant issues have come to light and former SSO members are being shortchanged by the employer.  

The move of 1,300 members in the Statistical Survey Operations group (SSO) to the Program Administrative Services (PA) bargaining unit under Treasury Board took place at the end of 2023. This was a welcome move that ensures all former SSO members—organized with PSAC since 2001—are covered under the recently negotiated PA collective agreement from PSAC’s last round of Treasury Board bargaining.  

Key issues affecting members  

• Classification of part-time employees as shift workers, who are being offered very little hours with erratic schedules—the worst form of precarity that exists in the federal public service; 
• Data Collection Clerks (CDD) reclassification not on par with similar jobs in the core public administration; 
• Members advised they need to complete a one-year probationary period despite their employment history; 
• Discrepancies between collective agreement provisions and the Employer’s adherence to those negotiated rights and entitlements. 
• Reduction in the hours of work across the country compared with hours before the move to PA 

Sections of the PA collective agreement that are being violated by the employer include: 

• Article 25 Hours of work 
• Article 26 Shift principle 
• Article 27 Shift and weekend premiums 
• Article 28 Overtime 
• Article 65 Part-time employees 

Although the move was welcomed at the time, the employer is creating unnecessary stress for members in what should be a straightforward process, because of an inconsistent interpretation and violations of the PA collective agreement to members of the former SSO bargaining unit.    

The union is fighting to address these violations and calls on the employer to immediately act to make our members whole. 

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