“Federal Union Takes CRA to Court Over Home Office Tax Rules”
One of Canada’s largest unions representing public employees has filed a negotiation complaint against the Canada Revenue Agency in bad faith over what it has dubbed an “about-face” on the work-from-home issue.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada brought the telecommuting complaint to the negotiating table, the union said in a press release.
The complaint comes as Federal Treasury Department regulations requiring federal public service workers to return to the office at least two days a week are being phased out across government.
PIPSC said its negotiators and the CRA exchanged proposals about working from home, which employees have been doing since March 2020.
However, at a bargaining meeting last month, the CRA said it no longer intends to include working languages in the collective agreement, PIPSC said.
“You can’t just brush a core issue off the table — which has been identified as a top priority for members — and call it anything but a malicious maneuver,” PIPSC President Jennifer Carr said in the press release -face undermining what is already being accomplished at the table and delays or even prevents the conclusion of an agreement.”
CTV News has reached out to the CRA for comment. PIPSC represents more than 14,000 AFS members employed by the CRA and 70,000 members overall.
The government last month rolled out its new hybrid working model across public services, requiring employees to work in the office two or three days a week. Many employees have been working remotely since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The transition will take place gradually, with all departments having to introduce the new hybrid working model by the end of March.
PIPSC and the Public Service Alliance of Canada have strongly opposed the plan, calling it a unified approach.
“The pandemic has forced governments to modernize labor practices, and those practices need to be embedded in employment contracts,” Carr said. “It protects everyone. It’s just good work practice.”
PSAC filed its own working committee complaint against the federal government over the hybrid working plan in December.
Source: ottawa.ctvnews.ca
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