CD 2012-009

Subject: New and Modified Allowances for the Health Services (SH) Group
Employer - Treasury Board

August 20, 2012

1. Purpose

1.1. The purpose of this directive is to provide information on the new and modified allowances described in the Health Services (SH) Group's collective agreement signed on June 12, 2012. This new agreement is available on the following Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) Web site: Collective Agreements.

1.2. A notice of information to employees concerning the new allowance to recognize the advanced practice role of Nurse Practitioner has been included with this compensation directive and will also be posted on the "Public Service Employee" page of the Compensation Sector Web site.

2. Background

2.1. The employer (Treasury Board) is offering various allowances to certain employees within the SH Group. Please refer to the following appendices of the collective agreement for more information:

  • Educational Allowance (Appendix B);
  • Terminable Allowances (Appendix C, D, J, K, L and M);
  • Recruitment Allowance (E);
  • Retention Allowance (Appendix F);
  • Expanded Professional Role Allowance (Appendix G);
  • Nurse in Charge Allowance (Appendix H);and
  • Nurse Practitioner Allowance (Appendix U).

3. Policy

3.1. This collective agreement requires that each employee receives all pay adjustments within 90 calendar days from the date of signature. Consequently, as these provisions form part of the collective agreement, they must be implemented within the 90-day implementation period, which expires on September 10, 2012.

3.2. Following are the new and modified allowances effective October 1, 2011:

  • Terminable Allowances (Appendix C and L);
  • Retention Allowance (Appendix F);and
  • Nurse Practitioner Allowance (Appendix U).

3.2.1. These allowances are not considered part of salary and as a result, entitlements related to pay situations (such as promotions or acting pay) will not be recalculated; they are not to be used in calculating the 4% gratuity or other entitlements such as premium pay in lieu of statutory holidays; they shall not be paid to employees for periods of leave without pay (LWOP) or periods of suspension; and they shall not be paid to or in respect of a person who ceased to be a member of the bargaining unit prior to the date of signing of this Agreement.

3.2.2. Part-time employees are entitled to these allowances on a prorated basis based on the hours worked in the eligible sub-group.

3.3. Terminable Allowance, Medical (MD) Group (Appendix C)

3.3.1. The existing terminable allowance for employees in the MD group is payable to all employees occupying a position in the MD-MOF and MD-MSP sub-groups.  

3.3.2. Effective October 1, 2011, 50% of this terminable allowance has been replaced by an increase in the basic pay and the remaining 50% will continue to be paid as an allowance. For employees who continued to receive the full allowance the compensation advisors will need to recover the amounts overpaid. If these amounts are not recovered, the employee would incorrectly receive 100% of the allowance as well as the increased salary.

3.3.3 Effective October 1, 2012, the remaining 50% of this allowance will be eliminated and replaced with an increase in the employee's salary. As a result, the allowance is no longer required and should be stopped.

3.3.4. When an MD employee is required by the Employer to perform the duties of a higher classification level, the terminable allowance payable shall be proportionate to the time at each level.

3.4. Retention Allowance, Health Canada Nurses (Appendix F)

3.4.1. The existing retention allowance applies to Health Canada's NU-CHNs employees permanently assigned in nursing stations in remote and isolated locations. This allowance also applies to the NU-CHN-5 Practice Consultants, working for any department, whose regular duties of their position requires them to use the skills of the expanded scope of practice while working with nurses employed in these communities. This allowance also applies to Assistant Zone Nursing Officers working for any department who supervise nurses employed in remote and isolated communities.

3.4.2. Commencing October 1, 2011, this allowance is increased by $1,000, to $5,500 annually.

3.4.3. Only indeterminate employees and employees hired for a term of 12 months or more are eligible for this allowance. Employees can only become eligible for this allowance after they have received 10 days pay per calendar month for 12 calendar months continuous or discontinuous (including breaks in the period).

3.4.4. An employee may not receive this allowance and the Recruitment Allowance in Appendix "E" during the same 12 month period.

3.5. Terminable Allowance, NU-CHN and NU-HOS (Appendix L)

3.5.1. Commencing October 1, 2011, the eligibility for the terminable allowance of $4,500 currently payable to employees in the NU-HOS sub-group working in Correctional Services Canada (CSC) has been extended to employees in the NU-CHN sub-group working in CSC.

3.6. New Nurse Practitioner Allowance (Appendix U)

3.6.1. Commencing October 1, 2011, in an effort to recognize the advanced practice role of Nurse Practitioner and to resolve retention and recruitment problems, the Employer will provide an allowance to eligible employees occupying a position in the NU-CHN-04 sub-group and level or in the NU-HOS-04 sub-group and level in the SH group.

3.6.2. An employee may not receive this allowance and the Expanded Professional Role Allowance in Appendix "G" or the Nurse in Charge Allowance in Appendix "H" during the same period.

4. Procedures and Instructions

4.1. Terminable Allowance, MD Group (Appendix C)

4.1.1. The existing entitlement code 227 (Terminable Retention Allowance) will continue to be used to pay the terminable allowance for employees occupying a position in the MD-MOF and MD-MSP sub-groups.

4.1.2. Effective October 1, 2011, the terminable allowance is to be paid in accordance with the rates below, which represents 50% of the allowance prior to this date.

Details for the terminable allowance, groups and amounts, appendix C.
Groups and Subgroups Annual Amount Daily Amount
MD-MOF-1 $9,575 $36.70
MD-MOF-2 $10,100 $38.71
MD-MOF-3 $10,875 $41.69
MD-MOF-4 $15,375 $58.93
MD-MSP-1 $10,875 $41.69
MD-MSP-2 $15,375 $58.93

4.1.3. As indicated previously in section 3.3.2, for employees who are currently receiving the full allowance, the compensation advisor will be required to recover the amounts overpaid. Since this represents a significant amount, it is recommended that the amounts recovered be taken from the retroactivity payment.

4.1.4. Compensation advisors are responsible for processing all retroactivity by completing "Entitlement Amend" ENA 210, 211 – Pay Action Code (PAC) 18A transactions for dates prior to signing date, and a "Revision" (REV – PAC 09) from the signing date, June 12, 2012. Please refer to the Pay Rate Implementation Bulletin (PRIB) PRIB 2012-035 for more details.

4.1.5. Compensation advisors are to amend the allowance by completing an "Entitlement Amend" (ENA – PAC 18A) transaction with entitlement code 227, rate base 2 (daily), and the new rates effective October 1, 2011.

4.1.6. Compensation advisors are also required to process recoveries for every day that the allowance was paid in full from October 1, 2011, by completing an ENTITLEMENT - ONE TIME RECOVERY - CLOSED PERIOD (ENR – PAC 18R) transaction. The calculation of the amount to be recovered is to be done manually by the compensation advisors based on the new rate of the allowance and the number of days the employees received the allowance at 100% between October 1, 2011, and the processing pay period.

4.1.7. The following table provides the input requirements to process the retroactivity payment, amend the allowance and process the recoveries.

Details of the input requirements to process retroactivity payment, amend the allowance and process the recoveries for the terminable allowance.
PAC Effective From Effective To Rate Base Rate Amount Field 67 Field 68 From Rate (Field 69)
18A 211 (ENA 211) 2011-10-01 2011-12-21 9 New salary D Days in the closed period Former rate
18A 211 (ENA 211) 2011-12-22 2011-12-31 9 New salary D Days in the closed period Former rate
18A 211 (ENA 211) 2012-01-01 2012-03-31 9 New salary D Days in the closed period Former rate
18A 210 2012-04-01 2012-06-11   New salary D Days in the closed period Former rate
09A001 (REV 001) 2012-06-12 Open 9 New salary D Days in the retroactive period Former rate
18A 227 (ENA 227) 2011-10-01 2011-12-21 2 New rate D Days in the closed period Former rate
18A 227 (ENA 227) 2011-12-22 2011-12-31 2 New rate D Days in the closed period Former rate
18A 227 (ENA 227) 2012-01-01 Open 2 New rate D Days in the retroactive period Former rate
18R 227 (ENR 227) 2011-10-01 2011-12-21 0 Amount to be recovered for that period   N/A N/A
18R 227 (ENR 227) 2011-12-22 2011-12-31 0 Amount to be recovered for that period   N/A N/A
18R 227 (ENR 227) 2012-01-01 The day prior to the pay period that the 18A 227 was input. 0 Amount to be recovered for that period   N/A N/A

4.1.8. When completing the ENR - PAC 18R, compensation advisors should enter "O" in the third position and "V" in the fourth position of field 71. This will ensure that the recoveries are made directly from the supplementary revision payment and not from regular pay.

4.1.9. For pay input instructions, please refer to Personnel-Pay Input Manual (PPIM) sections PPIM 4-4-09, PPIM 4-4-18-4-1, PPIM 4-4-18-5-1, PPIM 4-4-18-5-2, PPIM 14-4-5, PPIM 14-6-4, PPIM 14-6-3 and PPIM 5-9.

4.2. Retention Allowance, NU Group (Appendix F)

4.2.1. The existing entitlement code 188 (Retention Allowance) will continue to be used to pay the retention allowance for eligible employees in the NU group.

4.2.2. Compensation advisors are responsible for amending the retention allowance by completing an "Entitlement Amend" (ENA – PAC 18A) transaction with entitlement code 188 (Retention Allowance), rate base 2 and the new daily rate effective October 1, 2011.

Details for the retention allowance, groups and amounts, appendix F.
Subgroups Annual Amount Daily Amount
NU-CHN $5,500 $21.08

4.3. Terminable Allowance, NU-CHN Sub-groups (Appendix L)

4.3.1. The existing entitlement code 227 (Terminable Retention Allowance) will be used to pay the terminable allowance to eligible employees in sub-group NU-CHN at Correctional Services Canada. 

4.3.2. Compensation advisors are responsible for  commencing the terminable allowance by completing an "Entitlement Commence" (ENC – PAC 18C) transaction with entitlement code 227, rate base 2 and the daily rate effective October 1, 2011.

Details for the terminable allowance, groups and amounts, appendix L.
Subgroups Annual Amount Daily Amount
NU-CHN $4,500 $17.25

4.4. New Nurse Practitioner Allowance, NU-CHN-04 or NU-HOS-04 (Appendix U)

4.4.1. The entitlement code 251 (Recruitment and Retention Allowance) will be used to pay the nurse practitioner allowance to eligible employees in sub-groups and levels NU-CHN-04 or NU-HOS-04.

4.4.2. Compensation advisors are responsible for commencing the nurse practitioner allowance and for stopping it when an employee is no longer eligible. To start the allowance, the compensation advisor must report an "Entitlement Commence" (ENC – PAC 18C) transaction with entitlement code 251, rate base 2 and the daily rate effective October 1, 2011.

Details for the New Nurse Practitioner Allowance, groups and amounts, appendix U.
Groups and Subgroups Annual Amount Daily Amount
NU-CHN-04 or NU-HOS-04 $18,000 $69.00

4.4.3. For pay input requirements, please refer to the Personnel-Pay Input Manual (PPIM) sections PPIM 4-4-18-3-1 and PPIM 14-6-1.

5. Inquiries

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

Original Signed by
Carrie E. Roussin

Carrie E. Roussin
Director General
Compensation Sector
Accounting, Banking and Compensation

Reference(s): ENT 227, 188, 024, 026, 063, 088, and 251

Information Notice to Employees

New allowance to recognize the advanced practice role of Nurse Practitioner

The purpose of this notice is to provide you with information on the new nurse practitioner allowance described in the new collective agreement for the Health Services (SH) group, which was signed on June 12, 2012.

Commencing October 1, 2011 employees who perform the clinical duties of Nurse Practitioner at levels NU-CHN-04 and NU-HOS-04 in the Health Services group are entitled to receive this allowance. This includes indeterminate and term employees, seasonal employees, casuals and employees working on an "as required" basis. Eligible part-time employees are entitled to this allowance on a prorated basis.

The nurse practitioner allowance is a daily amount of $69.00 for each day for which the employee is paid, pursuant to Appendix U of the SH collective agreement.

This allowance is subject to the following deductions: Income Tax (federal and provincial), Employment Insurance (EI), Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), Disability Insurance Plan (DI), Long-term Disability Insurance Plan (LTD), Supplementary Death Benefit (SDB) Plan, Public Service Management Insurance Plan (PSMIP) and Public Service Pension Plan. It will not be used to calculate the 4% gratuity or other entitlements such as premium pay in lieu of statutory holidays.

Your compensation advisor will be responsible for completing the necessary pay input transactions to process the payment of this allowance, for all eligible employees.

Any request for information regarding the payment of this allowance should be addressed to your compensation advisor.