FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) have ratified a tentative agreement with the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS). By the close of the vote, at 12 p.m. on May 26, a majority of the membership had cast ballots with over 95% voting in support of the agreement reached on May 9. This represents an absolute majority of PAFSO’s total membership.
PAFSO, the union representing the 2,000 employees of Canada’s professional foreign service, had been in negotiations for over six months. After serving notice to bargain in March of last year, PAFSO’s Collective Bargaining Committee worked tirelessly with its counterparts on the Employer’s side to reach the tentative deal.
“I am happy to report that we have ratified an agreement which delivers many significant economic gains for our members. But, beyond this, it delivers several other improvements,” said Pamela Isfeld, President of PAFSO. “From provisions concerning overtime, the lowering of the threshold for accessing more leave, improved flexibility for our indigenous colleagues wishing to participate in traditional practices to memorandums of agreement on telework and the temperature-controlled shipment of medications to members posted abroad, this agreement, now ratified, represents an important advancement for our members.”
PAFSO and TBS are currently in the process of establishing a date for the formal signature of the agreement.
The new agreement is set to remain in effect until June 30, 2026.
I offer my thanks to Paul Raven, our lead negotiator, and the other members of the Collective Bargaining Committee, whose six months of hard work have gotten us to where we are today,” said Isfeld.
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