ARCHIVED CD 2009-015

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| Annex A  

July 10, 2009 (Revised August 19, 2009)

SUBJECT: Pay Zone Elimination for the General Labour and Trades (GL), General Services (GS) and Hospital Services (HS) Groups and Geographic Location Codes (GEOLOC) Update

1. PURPOSE

1.1 The purpose of this directive is to provide you with information concerning the elimination of regional pay zones for the General Labour and Trades (GL), General Services (GS) and Hospital Services (HS) groups in accordance with the Operational Services (SV) group's collective agreement that was signed on February 6, 2009. This directive also provides information concerning the Geographic Location Codes (GEOLOC) update.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1. Pay Zone Elimination for the GL, GS and HS groups

As stipulated in the new collective agreement for the SV group signed between the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), regional pay zones are to be eliminated and replaced by national pay structures for the GL, GS and HS groups, effective August 5, 2009.

2.2. GEOLOC Update

The GEOLOC, as supplied by Statistics Canada, will be updated to reflect any changes to the codes as a result of the most recent Canadian census conducted in 2006.

3. POLICY

3.1 Prior to August 5, 2009, the salary rates for employees working in the GL, GS and HS groups were established by geographical areas of employment called pay zones. The current pay zone structure for these groups is defined as follows:

  • Zone 1 - British Columbia, Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories
  • Zone 2 - Atlantic, Quebec and Ontario
  • Zone 3 - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta

3.2 Effective August 5, 2009, a pay zone system will no longer be required to determine the salary for employees in the GL, GS and HS groups. Consequently, the current pay zone structure will be eliminated and replaced by a national pay structure (rates with no zones) for employees in these groups. For more information regarding this restructure, please refer to the SV collective agreement.

4. PROCEDURES/INSTRUCTIONS

4.1. Pay Zone Elimination for the GL, GS and HS groups

Currently, the Regional Pay System (RPS) reflects a single salary step pay structure for the GL, GS and HS groups, containing pay rates allocated to three regional pay zones:

Pay Rates Regional Pay Zone
GL 101, GS 201 and HS 301 Zone 1 - British Columbia, Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories
GL 102, GS 202 and HS 302 Zone 2 - Atlantic, Quebec and Ontario
GL 103, GS 203 and HS 303 Zone 3 - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta

4.2 Effective August 5, 2009, pay zones will be eliminated and replaced by a national pay structure. The new structure will consist of three salary steps containing rates of pay without pay zones. The new rates for the national pay structure will be updated to the RPS on July 16, 2009. The RPS will automatically process the salary revision for employees on July 20, 2009 for 7C pay accounts, and on August 4, 2009 for 7A and 7B pay accounts, thereby implementing the national pay structure for these groups.

Please note that compensation advisors will be responsible to manually convert employees classified as part of the Apprenticeship Program (classification level 00) to the new national pay structure.

4.3 Compensation advisors are reminded that the appropriate pay zone code (field 36) must still be entered when reporting transactions using rates of pay that require a pay zone code (i.e. rates prior to August 5, 2009).

4.4 Supervisory Differential and Inmates Training Differential Allowances

Eligible employees will continue to receive a Supervisory Differential (ENT 070) and an Inmates Training Differential (ENT 080) allowance under the new national pay structure.

| The amount of the allowance is calculated by multiplying the applicable differential percentage by the appropriate rate of pay according to the employee's group, level and salary step.

Example - Supervisory Differential

| Employee classification: GL-MAM-08

Salary on August 5, 2009: $23.27 / hour (non-supervisory rate of pay)

Supervisory Coordinate: B2 (Supervisory Differential percentage of 6.5%)

To commence the allowance, the compensation advisor must report an Entitlement Commence (ENC - PAC 18C) transaction with entitlement code 070, rate base 1 and a rate amount of 1.51.

| Compensation advisors will be responsible to input the required transactions to pay these allowances and to make the necessary adjustments for all eligible employees in the GL, GS and HS groups. Please refer to the Personnel-Pay Input Manual (PPIM) sections 14-6-1 and 4-6-2 for pay input requirements.

4.5. GEOLOC Update

The GEOLOC will be updated in the RPS on August 17, 2009, to reflect the changes to the codes as required by the 2006 census.

The GEOLOC resulting from the 2006 census can be viewed on the Statistics Canada Website at the following address: Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2006.

| Compensation advisors are required to verify if employees need to have their GEOLOC updated in cases where their geographic locations were split into multiple locations as a result of the 2006 Canadian Census. Please refer to Annex A for a list of the GEOLOC s that were affected by this change.

| In order to update the GEOLOC, the compensation advisor must report a Status Change (STC - PAC 12A) transaction and enter the new code in Field 20 "GEO LOC".

4.6 The PPIM will be updated to incorporate the changes contained in this directive.

5. INQUIRIES

5.1 Any inquiries on the information contained in this document should be addressed to your Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Compensation Services Office.



signed by
R. Di Paola for Brigitte Fortin

Brigitte Fortin
Director General
Compensation Sector
Accounting, Banking and Compensation


Reference(s): CJA 9022-20
Bargaining Unit Designator (BUD) 603/653, 604/654 and 606/656