While the Liberal government has agreed to add about $5.2 billion to the pockets of its employees over the next four years, the president of the Treasury Board says this does not include the cost of a $2,500 bonus for each worker, which if added, will raise the settlement by another $300 million.
“So it might be an additional two or $300 million in the first year if my math is correct.”
‘No Studies’ on Work From Home
Under the new collective agreement, PSAC and UTE workers will be provided with 12.6 percent in compounded wage increases over the next four years, including the $2,500 payment that represents an additional 3.7 percent of salary for the average union member.Sen. Larry Smith asked if there is any data on the number of people within PSAC working from home versus in the office.
“We don’t necessarily have all the numbers from all the departments,” Fortier replied. “We are starting to gather some intelligence and data gathering, but it is the department’s prerogative on how they will assess and how they will also determine the up to three days for their delivery.”
“We have not sent a formal request for information but we put the question informally to the Treasury Board and several departments,” said Giroux.
Productivity
Sen. Tony Loffreda asked Fortier if there was “any proper work” being done by her department to properly assess the efficiency of government services pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic, given the number of full-time employees had increased over the past three years and that working from home “is the new reality.”“In light of these two major shifts, how can we evaluate the improvements in terms of service delivery to Canadians?” he asked. “Are we improving outcomes? And how are you measuring [outcomes]?
“I think we need to make sure that we balance and we look at all of those data points that we’re gathering on productivity,” Fortier replied.