April 7, 2020
The Renewal
It was on the very last day of March that the CBC and APS reached an agreement to prolong the collective agreement to meet the submission date for the APS Executive Committee on April 3, 2020. The Committee gave its approval to the agreement as a result of that meeting.
This is the content of the renewal: « The parties confirm the continuation of the present collective agreement for a period of two (2) years from April first (1), 2020 to March 31, 2022, under adjustments and modifications set forth in the present agreement » – (unofficial translation of art 2). Thus, a renewal provision assorted with a modification concerning a salary catch-up for certain employees.
The Salary Catch-Up
The increase of salary contained in the agreement specifically targets those employees who were left stranded at the higher echelons of the salary bands as the result of the CBC’s decision to raise bands first in 2017 and then in 2018 to cover superior levels of the APS salary structure. As a result, more than 160 APS employees will be receiving starting this April, salary increases of 2 or 3% depending on the results of their performance appraisal results for 2019. Employees rated above expectations in 2019 will receive 3% while those having met expectations will be awarded 2% increases in their salaries. Those same increases will be given twice to the same employees; first in April of this year (2020) and then in April of 2021. Those increases will be attributed in addition to normal performance increases usually paid out in early July each year.
Modalities of application are presently being ironed out to meet the obligation to dispense the first payments promised in the agreement. In this regard, APS will be contacting concerned employees to make them aware of the situation.
This deal ended a long struggle APS had undertaken in the aftermath of the first scale increase decreed by the CBC in 2017. Everyone understood that the increases in bands would eventually benefit all employees placed under the midpoint of the bands while those situated above could never benefit from the move.
In a letter sent to Vice Presidents of the two Networks as well as to the then Vice-President of Human Resources, Monique Marcotte, Mario Poudrier had written: « All employees thus penalized represent the contingent of professional elites from the APS ranks. These members of personnel have reached the top levels of salary scales because of their dedication and work achievements accomplished over decades of effort. They are the vital essence of this organization and now they are blocked by the compensation system. A major redress is needed to correct the injustice affecting now the strongest and most vital part of the Professionals and Supervisors working for CBC/Radio-Canada .»
Upgrade of the Discretionary Salary Budget for General Salary Increases
The new agreement also provides for a modification applicable to all employees. Thus the 0.7% discretionary amount of salary increase provided for in art.2 of Appendix « G » will be upgraded to 0.8%. The text reads as follows in the agreement: « The maximum annual amount of spending of 0.7% provided for in art.2 of Appendix « G » of the existing collective agreement is modified to an amount of 0.8%.”
Those are the main modifications contained in this agreement, one of the four conditions for renewal APS had affixed for the continuation of our present collective agreement. As we announced on Monday, the other modifications will be explained in the next two days. Tomorrow, Wednesday we will cover the mediation deals for on-call payments and the midpoint changes. On Thursday, we will explain the changes for the Script Editor statuses.