The Union of Taxation Employees and the Canada Revenue Agency have reached a tentative agreement that includes new protections around remote work and improved vacation.
The tentative agreement, which ends a strike lasting more than two weeks involving 35,000 workers, has some of the same updates that were reached by the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the federal government on May 1.
It includes negotiated language that requires managers to assess remote work requests individually — not by group — and provide written responses that will allow members and the UTE to hold the employer accountable to equitable and fair decision-making on remote work. The agreement also allows the creation of a joint committee to review and update the remote work policy for the government, which was last updated in 2020.
Read: PSAC, government tentative agreement includes new protections around remote work, wage increases
In addition, the union negotiated an improvement in vacation accrual, with the threshold for accessing four weeks of vacation dropping from eight to seven years of employment, allowing for flexibility related to family responsibility leave and bereavement leave.
The agreement also includes wage increases, totalling 12.6 per cent compounded over the duration of the agreement from 2021 to 2025. The UTE secured an additional fourth year in the agreement that protects workers from inflation, as well as a pensionable $2,500 one-time lump sum payment that represents an additional 3.6 per cent of salary for the average member.