The announcement of the program likely “shocked” the union, and it\u2019s no surprise it wants to be involved in the process, said labour lawyer Marc Boudreau, who reviewed the complaints.<\/p>\n
The complaints argue the government is “circumventing” the workforce adjustment process and preventing PSAC from “playing any role in how the planned [staff] reductions are accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early retirement program “has the same objectives and general design” as the workforce adjustment that was specifically bargained into collective agreements, PSAC added.<\/p>\n
The union says it’s \u201cleft with no way to explain to its members how the program will be rolled out or implemented in conjunction with the existing workforce adjustment process.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772461510_632_default.jpg\")
Marc Boudreau, a lawyer specializing in labour law, says the early retirement incentive program likely ‘shocked’ the union. (Submitted by Marc Boudreau)’Actively undermining’<\/p>\n
\u201cBy placing the Union in this position, [the government] is actively undermining its role as a bargaining agent and causing members to perceive the Union as uninformed and ineffective,\u201d reads PSAC\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n
In a French-language interview, Boudreau said PSAC “is losing face a bit” and “has been sidelined” from the process being put into place.<\/p>\n
The federal government, however, \u201cdoesn\u2019t seem to know where it’s going with this program either,” he added.<\/p>\n
The details are expected to be unveiled when it comes into force, something that’s set to take place after the federal budget receives royal assent.<\/p>\n
Boudreau added the union \u201chas no interest in losing members, because it will eventually lose union dues.\u201d<\/p>\n
PSAC also believes that by announcing the early retirement program, the government is violating its duty to observe terms and conditions of employment while collective agreement negotiations are underway for certain groups of workers.<\/p>\n
However, Boudreau noted that “changes to working conditions have not actually taken place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the union is doing right now is a bit like a lawyer standing up and shouting \u2018Objection!\u2019 to the judge before the other lawyer has even asked their question,\u201d Boudreau said.<\/p>\n
How are public servants impacted?<\/p>\n
To support its arguments, PSAC has filed a copy of the proposals it made during ongoing negotiations concerning workforce adjustment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These proposals reveal that the union wishes to increase the education allowance \u2014 a support measure option for some employees affected by workforce adjustments \u2014 from $17,000 to $25,000.<\/p>\n
Labour lawyer Malini Vijaykumar, partner at Nelligan Law, said even she and her colleagues have very few details about the federal early incentive program, despite representing several other federal public service unions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been this program that\u2019s been sort of dangled, I guess, in front of workers, and there\u2019s just not a lot of clarity on it,\u201d said Vijaykumar.<\/p>\n
She said the program is a \u201csignificant incentive\u201d for some public servants near retirement age who are worried about layoffs.<\/p>\n
Reviewing the complaints, she said PSAC appears worried its members may be \u201cmaking these decisions without full knowledge of the terms\u201d of the incentive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And while she believes the labour board will prioritize complaints like this, it could still be months before a conclusion is reached.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo until or unless the labour board says that something improper has gone on here, it’s probably the status quo in terms of the government offering the [incentive],\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
That means individual public servants might decide to take the incentive in the meantime. The process, Vijaykumar said, is unlikely to retroactively \u201cclaw back or affect\u201d any benefits that workers may get by accepting the incentive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But she advises workers to thoroughly consult finance, tax or legal professionals before making any decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, these are decisions that affect your life, your job, your finances,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PSAC said in a French statement that it’s not opposed to early retirement, it’s opposed to how this has been rolled out without proper negotiations and, in its view, illegally.<\/p>\n
The office of the president of the Treasury Board declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n
Once the government responds to the complaints before the labour relations board, the board will determine next steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal public service\u2019s largest union has filed official complaints asking the government to “cease the unilateral implementation”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-509569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}