r/CanadaPublicServants

Today I noticed that I was being deducted union due arrears on my pay. I was not ever informed that there was an issue or that an amount was owing. In fact, before noticing this deduction on my pay, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to either the pay centre or my union.

When I called the pay centre, I was told that I owed an amount of $1260.84 for a period in 2022-2023. I was not given any details on dates or timelines or any calculation whatsoever. When I asked for more information, I was told to submit a pay intervention request form, which I did.

What really bothers me here is that at no point was I contacted regarding the amount allegedly owing, the amount to be recovered, the recovery modalities or timelines, nor was I given an opportunity to review or contest the amount before recovery began. The amounts simply started being taken from my pay without any prior notice or discussion.

I also don’t understand how this mistake was even made in the first place. I have been in the PS for about 5 years. I came in straight into a permanent position and have not once changed positions or department. I went on mat leave in 2024, but that is after this alleged issue. So I’m not sure why they just didn’t take out these dues, nor why they let this accumulate to 1260.84$ before doing anything about it.

This leaves me a little perplexed. Is this standard practice? I’m terrified now that the pay centre is making mistakes on my pay and can just go ahead and pay themselves when they feel like an amount is due. And given the current climate, I can’t afford to have random deductions start showing up in my pay without factoring it in to my budget. Where do I go from here? How do I ensure this isn’t a recurring issue?

Anyone know any info about what's happening with L'Esplanade Laurier (LEL)? The building is on the GC's disposal list, and with elevators constantly down, floors closed seemingly for good, and the general deterioration of the place, workers are starting to get concerned for their safety.

As temperatures dip, the risk of further water main breaks and other issues rise. Not to mention the number of temporary jack posts holding up the building in the underground parking garage and to say nothing of the mice. There doesn't seem to be a plan to invest any more money or work into the building, yet employees are still expected to come to work in a building destined for closure.

Anyone in the know about what they plan to do with the building and with its reluctant occupants?

I've been on long term disability leave and will be returning to work in January. During this time, in my correspondence with management, they never mentioned about WFA and I never received any notices. After finalizing my return-to-work plan with my doctor and submitting everything to management and Sun Life, the manager suddenly informed me that my unit/position no longer exists in the region and wants to place me in another unit/position that I see is a big mismatch for my technical skills profile/interests/career trajectory. The manager is asking that I submit my education credentials to initiate this process. I understand there was a backfill for me and it seems they're still working there with my substantive title so I'm very confused (at least according to their LinkedIn).

Edit: I should mention this manager is new and I've never worked with them before.

Sorry if this is negative - I am really struggling lately.

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What I thought was the bare minimum of effort at work in the roles around me is consistently sinking lower and lower.

I work in IT. I started years ago with much enthusiasm, with the perspective that I can do things, as I have other places I’ve worked. Nothing crazy, just that I would *do a thing*, check off a task, complete something. Do something that will help someone. I deeply care about the mandate of what I’m doing.

Earlier on, I got tasked with solving a business problem and coming up with a solution. I did research and put together a proposal. Without the foundations to move forward fully, I also put together the pre-requisites to implementation. Without being prompted, I even identified who in the org could help me work on them, according to function. Assignment dropped. No feedback. No reason, no follow up. No work.

I’ve moved a couple times, and this pattern has repeated in different forms. The gaps still exist. I’ve been promoted and I do well in my performance assessments, so I know it’s not about my capacity. It’s definitely not about my willingness. I do professional development, and sometimes on my own dime.

Lately I participate in department wide IT projects, and It seems like the others around me have found every way they can think of to reduce their accountability and workload, and put it on our clients. Generating simple AI deliverables, not quality checking. Clients ask questions and get sent to a FAQ page that doesn’t answer the question. Usability is not a top concern.

We don’t have basic IT governance - colleagues and teams fight over what systems should be doing. But since there’s no requirements, no common language, and no standards, it’s just a fight over vision with circular arguments, peppered with a lack of user adoption.

We are supposed to have professional expertise in what we’re doing, but our clients often demonstrate a higher capacity to do the work, while caring more than most people in my function.

If TBS or SSC don’t require or incite us to do something, it seems we don’t do it.

We’re continually asked by our leadership to identify the low hanging fruit, at the expense of forever avoiding the hard and foundational work. But we’re at the point now where there is no fruit - we’ve neglected the tree for a decade. How can we possibly expect fruit?!

Can anyone else relate, and if so, how do you stay motivated and do your job? I wonder if this is just a really incompetent area of IT that I find myself in, or if some aspects of this are standard across the board in the PS.

Has anyone ever experienced this, but then moved to another area or another dept where it got better? Thank you!

As some of you may have seen, we received an update from the bargaining group. The documents are quite long so I’ve summarized them for those who are interested.

Here are the main changes in the September 16, 2026 union and employer packages.

*NOTE* —> These are opening proposals—not agreed changes. Neither package includes a general wage increase percentage yet.

Union proposals
Shift premium: $2.25 → $5/hour for eligible hours between 16:00 and 08:00.

Additional MT overnight premium: $2.25 → $3/hour between 23:00 and 07:00.

Weekend premium: $2.25 → $5/hour. Combined MT weekend overnight premiums would rise from $6.25 to $13/hour.

Overtime: Double time for all OT, replacing the current mix of 1.5× and 2×.

MT holiday work: Double time for all hours worked.

OT meals: $12 → $30 per qualifying meal.

Vacation: Starting entitlement 15 → 20 days/year; at 17 years, 23 → 25 days; at 27 years, 27 → 30 days. Other milestones unchanged.

Personal leave: 2 → 5 days/year, removing the fixed five-working-day notice requirement.

Family leave: 5 → 10 days/year, with up to two days carried over and a maximum bank of 12 days. Add moving and pressing household needs as eligible uses.

Shift-worker sick credits: Keep the extra 1.25 hours/month, but remove annual expiry and the requirement to first use 112.5 sick hours.

Paid holidays: One additional holiday annually.
Banked compensation: Remove employer discretion over converting OT, callback, travel and MT holiday compensation into leave.

Other additions: Explicit remote callback coverage, removal of travel-pay caps, professional-development leave extended beyond PC employees, and qualifying caregiving EI benefits topped up to 93% of pay.

Employer proposals
Remove shift/weekend premiums from OT hours.
Make double time on second/subsequent days off conditional on also working the first day off.

Reduce short-notice shift-change protection from under five days to under two days, keeping the rate at 1.5×.
Exclude training/conference OT unless attendance is required by the employer.

Make family-care unpaid leave discretionary.
Require eight weeks’ notice for personal-needs and spousal-relocation unpaid leave, except urgent/unforeseeable circumstances.

Allow new premium/OT rates to take effect up to 180 days after signing. Salary changes and retro pay would generally have 180-day timelines, or 460 days for cases requiring manual intervention.

The employer also proposes replacing the negotiated workforce-adjustment appendix with the NJC directive and deleting the scientific-integrity memorandum.
All leave-day figures above use 7.5-hour days. This covers the main changes in these two packages; the union’s separate common-issues package isn’t included.

Some of these apply mostly to the MT group, but the leave is for the entire group.

THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST, just some highlights. Links to the full documents are below, read in depth if interested.

English: https://pipsc.ca/sp-group-bargaining-update-3/

French: https://pipsc.ca/fr/negociations-du-groupe-sp-compte-rendu-no-3/