Latest news with #PSAC
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Service Canada to cut 800 office jobs nationwide
Published: Updated: Service Canada is set to cut about 800 passport office jobs nationwide by the end of June. The department attributes these reductions to an anticipated drop in passport applications. An Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) spokesperson confirmed the decision was 'necessary and not taken lightly.' These job cuts will affect Service Canada offices across the country, though specific numbers for each location weren't provided. All employees impacted by the changes have been informed. ESDC stated that, as a federal department, it has an obligation to manage its finances responsibly, aligning revenues with costs, including salaries, based on projected workloads. These Service Canada job cuts follow a prior announcement by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to eliminate up to 280 permanent jobs, primarily in the National Capital Region. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), representing nearly a quarter-million public sector workers, asserts that these combined reductions threaten essential daily services for Canadians, warning of potential service delays at passport offices and weakened services for taxpayers and businesses. The union warned that these job cuts will lead to longer wait times at passport offices and weaker services for taxpayers and businesses. PSAC National President Sharon DeSousa stated online, 'Throughout the election, the Liberals promised 'caps, not cuts,' but each week, hundreds of federal workers are receiving notice that their jobs are being eliminated.'
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Around 800 jobs to be cut Service Canada offices nationally
Around 800 passport office jobs are expected to be cut across the country at the end of June due to a forecast of reduced applications from Service Canada. In an email to this newspaper, a spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said the decision was 'necessary and not taken lightly.' The cuts will impact Service Canada offices nationally, the spokesperson added. They did not provide details about how many jobs from each service location will be cut, but did say all impacted employees have been notified. 'As a federal department, ESDC has an obligation to ensure sound fiscal management throughout the organization based on forecasted workload volumes. Revenues must be balanced with costs, including costs for employee salaries,' the email read. The job cuts come after the Canadian Revenue Agency announced it will cut 280 jobs, most of them in the National Capital Region. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents nearly 240,000 public service workers across the country, said the job cuts will threaten services that people rely on every day. It will mean longer wait times at passport offices as well as weakened services for taxpayers and businesses, the union said. 'Throughout the election, the Liberals promised 'caps, not cuts,' but each week, hundreds of federal workers are receiving notice that their jobs are being eliminated,' said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president, in a statement posted online. 'Prime Minister Carney needs to make good on his word and stop slashing the services people depend on – especially without proper analysis or solid evidence to support these decisions.' Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. City committee to debate whether to allow alcohol in parks GUILTY: Alain Bellefeuille gets life sentence for killing OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller, injuring two other officers
Ottawa Citizen
25-05-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Around 800 jobs to be cut Service Canada offices nationally
Article content Around 800 passport office jobs are expected to be cut across the country at the end of June due to a forecast of reduced applications from Service Canada. Article content In an email to this newspaper, a spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said the decision was 'necessary and not taken lightly.' Article content The cuts will impact Service Canada offices nationally, the spokesperson added. They did not provide details about how many jobs from each service location will be cut, but did say all impacted employees have been notified. Article content Article content 'As a federal department, ESDC has an obligation to ensure sound fiscal management throughout the organization based on forecasted workload volumes. Revenues must be balanced with costs, including costs for employee salaries,' the email read. Article content Article content The job cuts come after the Canadian Revenue Agency announced it will cut 280 jobs, most of them in the National Capital Region. Article content The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents nearly 240,000 public service workers across the country, said the job cuts will threaten services that people rely on every day. Article content It will mean longer wait times at passport offices as well as weakened services for taxpayers and businesses, the union said. Article content 'Throughout the election, the Liberals promised 'caps, not cuts,' but each week, hundreds of federal workers are receiving notice that their jobs are being eliminated,' said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president, in a statement posted online. Article content
CBC
03-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Kanata nuclear facility owner broke law during strike, labour board rules
Social Sharing A federal labour board has found the owner of a west Ottawa nuclear facility broke the law by failing to negotiate with employees in good faith during a protracted strike. About 40 Best Theratronics Ltd. (BTL) workers represented by Unifor returned to work late last month after securing an 11 per cent wage increase and a new collective agreement, more than nine months after walking off the job. About a dozen workers represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) are still on strike. Last week, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) upheld unfair labour practice complaints against the owner of the medical manufacturing company. In separate complaints lodged last year, Unifor and PSAC accused the owner of BTL, Krishnan Suthanthiran, of breaching the Canada Labour Code. CIRB heard the complaints as BTL is federally regulated as a licensed nuclear facility. In a decision dated Feb. 27, the independent administrative tribunal found that BTL had failed to bargain in good faith, a breach of the code. BTL also failed to give representatives authority to bargain on its behalf and had bargained in bad faith by disseminating false and misleading communications designed to influence the bargaining process, CIRB found. Reasons for decision to come later CIRB also found that BTL issued explicit anti-union statements, which undermined the unions in the eyes of bargaining unit employees. BTL's communications amounted to an attempt to interfere with the representation of PSAC's members, the board found. Finally, CIRB concluded that BTL disseminated misinformation as a means of threatening, intimidating and coercing unionized workers so that they would not continue their affiliation with the complainants and exercise their collective bargaining rights. The board said it would provide its reasoning at a later date. CIRB also said that before exercising "its remedial powers" it had appointed an industrial relations officer to assist the parties in resolving the dispute, asking him to report back before March 31. One union disappointed In a statement, PSAC regional executive vice-president Ruth Lau MacDonald said they were happy CIRB recognized that BTL had violated the code. But the union is "disappointed that the decision only entails a CIRB staff resource to be assigned and report back by March 31," she added. "This means that the board is not making use of its remedial powers to fix the situation, while our workers have been on the picket line for almost 300 days now." While the two sides are still trying to reach an agreement, BTL has not responded to PSAC since last Thursday, she said.
CBC
19-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Striking Kanata nuclear workers say owner moved deal's goalposts
After nine months on the picket line, one of the unions representing striking workers at a west Ottawa nuclear facility believed the owner was finally ready to reach a deal on salary increases last month. Representatives of Krishnan Suthanthiran — owner of Kanata medical manufacturer Best Theratronics — scheduled negotiations with unions in January, even indicating to one that a deal was within reach. "We were getting messages from the company that, 'OK, we just need to get signatures,'" said Jan Malek, the national representative for Unifor, which represents 40-odd Best Theratronics employees. Staff could be back at work within days, Malek said Suthanthiran's negotiators told Unifor. But then, Malek said, Suthanthiran introduced new demands. "You can't go in there and bargain to a deal and then say, 'Oh, the scenario changed. We need this new condition added to it. Oh, we need something else to keep moving the goalpost,'" Malek told CBC on Tuesday. Last-minute changes, cancellation Meanwhile, CBC has confirmed that Suthanthiran's representatives cancelled negotiations with a second union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), after the union had already joined a scheduled call. Citing the sensitivity of the situation, PSAC declined an on-record interview request. "The current negotiations process being undertaken by the employer is completely unprecedented," a PSAC spokesperson said. "As such, we are mindful that it may become more challenging to proceed in negotiations if we antagonize the employer in the media and are choosing to be cautious on this front." Suthanthiran has not responded to repeated recent requests for comment from CBC but has previously accused the unions of implementing an "illegal blockade" of his facility, something Unifor denies. "Our picket line has not been declared illegal and in our view it's reasonable under the circumstances," Malek said. Last-minute changes requested by Suthanthiran's representatives involved allowing non-union workers onto the site ahead of unionized workers, Malek said, leading Unifor to fear that Suthanthiran would attempt to remove equipment and liquidate the company's assets. "It is a real concern that the owner could be looking at closing," Malek said, "given the owner's past statements about closing the building and moving the business." Suthanthiran has previously told CBC that Best Theratronics has sustained loses of nearly $30 million "over the last several years" and has threatened to close the company. In 2012, a Belgian nuclear company owned by Suthanthiran was placed into administration, leaving Belgian authorities to decommission the site. The cleanup operation at Best Medical Belgium has taken over a decade, with one Belgian politician estimating the total cost to authorities at 128 million euros, or close to $200 million Canadian. Unifor and PSAC have both lodged unfair labour practice complaints against Suthanthiran, accusing him of flouting the law by failing to negotiate in good faith. The Canadian Industrial Labour Board heard the complaints last year and told CBC it aimed to issue a decision within 90 days. "It's been nearly three months without a decision from the labour board, which is absolutely shameful," Unifor Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi said in a statement Tuesday. "Had we received a decision in a timely manner, our members might not be on a picket line right now." Unifor has called on federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene and force binding arbitration. "Negotiated agreements are the best way forward," Matthieu Perrotin, a spokesperson for MacKinnon, told CBC in a statement.
