Treasury Board has agreed to enter into binding arbitration to end a controversial strike by Canada’s foreign service officers, but not without conditions.After nearly two months of picketing outside government offices around the world, the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) requested the government enter into third-party binding arbitration last week. The union’s offer was set to expire Tuesday at noon.
In a statement Tuesday, moments before noon, Treasury Board President Tony Clement said the government is willing to enter into arbitration, “under certain conditions.” However, those conditions will not be made public as they are subject to negotiation confidence, he said. “We will continue to bargain in good faith and we appreciate the bargaining agent’s efforts at finding a resolution to the strike,” said Clement. “Our goal is to have diplomatic, consular and other services to Canadians fully restored as quickly as possible.”
Clement’s Press Secretary Matthew Conway said there is no deadline for the arbitration process.In a statement Tuesday afternoon, PAFSO said it is reviewing Treasury Board’s conditions and follow up directly with the department.“PAFSO will need to assure itself that any arbitration mechanism allows for a full and fair hearing of arguments on both sides – an objective we are sure the Government shares,” said the union in an email.
The union said that until an agreement to begin arbitration is reached, there will be no change in PAFSO’s job actions, including rotating strikes and Regular Residential Cleaning Services . PAFSO said it will provide an update when there is more information to share.PAFSO, which represents 1,350 non-executive-level Canadian diplomats, has been in a legal strike position since April 2 and without contract since June 2011. The union is demanding equal pay for equal work because some junior diplomats earn up to $14,000 less than colleagues doing the same work in Ottawa.
Hundreds of PAFSO members have been picketing outside of government offices, including major embassies, around the world over the past two months. Members have also been participating in rotating strikes aimed at missions and sections where job action will have the strongest impact.“Over the summer, we are going to be targeting mainly visa and immigration processing because this is the peak season for those files, whereas the political and trade diplomatic calendar slows down over the summer,” PAFSO President Tim Edwards told iPolitics.
As Treasury Board and PAFSO attempt to come to an agreement, the effects of the strike are being felt around the world. According to Edwards, visa issuance has been heavily impacted, especially in major processing centres such as Beijing, Delhi, Manila, Mexico City. He said targeted missions have seen a 60 to 65 per cent drop in visa issuance and a 25 per cent drop system wide.Although PAFSO has been in informal contact at the official level with Treasury Board, with whom it is negotiating the contract, Edwards said the union has not officially sat down with the government since June 5.
Treasury Board has said it believes PAFSO members have been presented with a fair offer — something Clement maintained in his statement Tuesday.In prior statements, Treasury Board has highlighted some of the perks, known as Foreign Service Directives, PAFSO members are entitled. These include a reimbursement of up to 50 per cent for dry cleaning expenses, the shipment of personal vehicles and household items such as furniture to the diplomat’s posting, and a foreign service incentive allowance recognizing the challenges associated with living abroad. Treasury Board said it invests $126 million a year in said Foreign Service Directives, most of which is dedicated to PAFSO members.
But the union has said Treasury Board’s reference to the Foreign Service Directives is irrelevant to the negotiations currently at stake, which are focused on issues of pay.
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