Glossary of Terms and Definitions

Glossary of Terms and Definitions

Purpose

Many words and phrases used in this volume have a special meaning in the context of personnel management and pay administration in the Public Service. This chapter defines the most frequently used words and phrases.

Terms and definitions

Abandonment of a position is a voluntary and unauthorized absence from duty for a period of one week or more (abandon de poste);

acting assignment is a situation where an employee is required to perform temporarily the duties of a higher classification level for at least the qualifying period specified in the collective agreement or the terms and conditions of employment applicable to the employee's substantive level (affectation intérimaire);

acting pay the pay an employee receives when required to perform the duties of a higher classification level for a temporary period provided the employee meets the minimum qualifying period (rémunération d'intérim);

allowance is the compensation payable in respect of a position, or in respect of some of the positions in a group, by reason of duties of a special nature, or, a compensation for duties that an employee is required to perform in addition to the duties of the employee's position (indemnités);

annual rate is the rate of pay authorized for one calendar year (taux annuel);

appointment document is an instrument required by the Public Service Employment Act, which is completed on the appointment of an employee to a position in the Public Service (document de nomination);

arbitral award is an award made by the Public Service Staff Relations Board or an arbitrator dealing only with terms and conditions of employment that could not be settled by collective bargaining (décision arbitrale);

assimilation see removal from holding (assimilation);

bargaining agent is an employee organization that has been certified by the Public Service Staff Relations Board as a bargaining agent for a bargaining unit, provided that certification has not been revoked (agent négociateur);

bargaining unit is a group of two or more employees determined in accordance with the Public Service Staff Relations Act to constitute a unit of employees appropriate for collective bargaining (unité de négociation);

barrier is a point in a scale of rates beyond which progression is contingent upon meeting specified standards of proficiency and performance (barrière);

certificate of appointment see appointment document (certificat de nomination);

classification is the occupational group, subgroup (where applicable) and level assigned to a position (classification);

collective agreement is an agreement, in writing, entered into under the Public Service Staff Relations Act between the employer and a bargaining agent and containing provisions covering terms and conditions of employment and related matters (convention collective);

compensation days are the days in a pay period other than the designated days of rest (journées de rémunération);

compensation plan promulgates terms and conditions of employment for those employed in a managerial or confidential capacity and therefore not subject to the collective agreement for their group and level (régime de rémunération);

contiguous means adjoining, near (contigu);

continuous employment means one or more periods of service in the Public Service, as defined in the P.S.S.A., with allowable breaks only as provided for in the terms and conditions of employment applicable to the employee (emploi continu);

continuous service is an unbroken period of Public Service employment. Continuous service is broken when employment ceases between two periods of Public Service employment for at least one compensation day (service continu);

conversion is a situation in which a new group is established or a new classification and pay plan is introduced for an established group, and an employee is appointed to a position in the new group (transposition);

daily rate is the weekly rate of pay divided by the number of days in the standard work week(5) (taux journalier);

day of rest:

(a)for a fulltime employee — is a day, other than a holiday, on which an employee is not ordinarily required to perform the duties of his or her position other than by reason of being on leave of absence.

(b)for a parttime employee — is a day on which an employee is not ordinarily required to work other than by reason of being on leave of absence. Two days of rest per week shall be designated for each parttime employee. This does not include nonscheduled working days (jour de repos);

demotion is the appointment of an employee, because of incompetence or incapacity, to a position that has a lower maximum rate of pay than the maximum rate of pay applicable to the employee's former position (rétrogradation);

discharge means the involuntary termination of employment by reason of breaches of discipline or misconduct (congédiement);

dismissal (for political partisanship) is the involuntary termination of employment when the employee has contravened the restrictions on political partisanship (renvoi pour partialité politique);

employee is a person, as defined in the Public Service Staff Relations Act (employé);

employee in casual status is a person employed for a specified period in a department or agency listed in PartI, ScheduleI of the Public Service Staff Relations Act (PSSRA) until he or she has been so employed for a period of sixmonths with no break in employment in excess of five working days (employé en situation d'employé occasionnel);

employee not in casual status is a person who has been employed for a specified period in a department or agency listed in PartI, ScheduleI of the Public Service Staff Relations Act (PSSRA) for a period of six months or more with no break in employment in excess of five working days (employé n'étant pas en situation d'employé occasionnel);

end of specified term means the termination of employment at the end of a specified period for which an employee was hired (fin d'une période déterminée);

entitlements are the benefits applicable to an employee for services rendered (rétribution);

excluded employee is a person who is not an employee as defined in the Public Service Staff Relations Act and who is therefore not covered by a collective agreement (employé exclu);

extra duty pay is the compensation payable for performing special or additional duties (see allowances) (rémunération pour services supplémentaires);

holding rate is the rate of pay applicable to an employee when, as a result of a reclassification to a group and level with a lower maximum rate of pay, there is no rate of pay equal to or greater than the employee's rate of pay in the former group and level (taux maintenu);

holiday is the twentyfour(24)hour period beginning at 00:00hours of a day designated to be a holiday (jour férié);

hourly rate is the annual rate for the occupational group and level divided by 52.176 and further divided by the standard number of hours in the work week, or the hourly rate specified for the occupational group and level (taux horaire);

implementation period

(a)for collective agreements is the period of ninety calendar days beginning on the day immediately following the date of signing.

(b)for an arbitral award is the period of ninety calendar days beginning on the date the award is rendered (Période de mise en oeuvre);

increment is where there are intermediate steps, a progression from one step to the next higher step in any range of pay rates (augmentation);

layoff is the termination of employment because of the discontinuance of a function or because of a lack of work (licenciement, mise en disponibilité);

letter of understanding is an instrument signed by the employer and bargaining agents during the life of an agreement. It usually contains an amendment to a clause, a deletion of a clause or an addition to an article (lettre d'accord);

lumpsum payment is a onetime payment of an employee's entitlement (paiement en une somme globale);

memorandum of agreement is an agreement in writing between the employer and a bargaining agent, containing the newlynegotiated provisions governing conditions of employment, rates of pay, hours of work, etc., dated and signed by the parties. Memoranda of Agreement can also be used in other staff relations matters, such as grievance adjudication (protocole d'accord);

nonscheduled working day refers to the day for which an employee is neither assigned nor regularly scheduled to work (journée de travail non prévue à l'horaire);

occupational category are any of the following categories of employees:

–management

–scientific and professional

–technical

–administrative and foreign service

–administrative support

–operational

(catégorie professionnelle);

overtime

(a)for a fulltime employee is the time worked by an employee in excess of that employee's standard daily or weekly hours of work or of the hours of work prescribed by the deputy head for that employee but not including time worked on a holiday (see collective agreement);

(b)for a parttime employee is the time worked by an employee in excess of the standard daily or weekly hours of work established for a fulltime employee of the occupational group and level of the employee, but does not include time worked on a holiday (heures supplémentaires);

overtime compensation is the payment for authorized work performed in excess of the normal hours of work or on the normal days of rest (rémunération des heures supplémentaires);

PartI service is the that portion of the Public Service specified in Part1 of Schedule1 of the Public Service Staff Relations Act. (service prévu à la partieI);

parttime employee is a person employed to work less than the normallyscheduled daily or weekly hours of work established for a fulltime employee of the same occupational group and level (employé à temps partiel);

parttime worker is a person appointed under the Regulations Respecting PartTime Work in the Public Service who is not ordinarily required to work more than onethird of the normal scheduled daily or weekly hours of work established for persons doing similar work (travailleur à temps partiel);

pay increment period is the period between successive pay increments (période d'augmentation d'échelon de rémunération);

position is an aggregation of duties and responsibilities which are, or can be, discharged by one individual at a particular location in an organizational structure (poste);

promotion is an appointment where the maximum pay rate for the new position exceeds that for the substantive position by:

(a)an amount equal to the lowest pay increment for the new position (where there is a scale of rates); or

(b)an amount equal to four(4)percent of the maximum rate of the new position (where there is only one rate) (promotion);

Public service means the several positions in or under any department or portion of the executive government of Canada, including those in the Senate, the House of Commons of Canada, the Library of Parliament, and any board, commission, corporation or portion of the Public Service of Canada specified in ScheduleI of the Public Service Superannuation Act (PartI, Section3(1) of the P.S.S.A.) (Fonction publique);

range of rates are rates of pay, from minimum to maximum, payable to employees in a given group and level as established by a collective agreement or pay plan (fourchette des taux);

reclassification is a change in the group and/or level of a position or positions resulting from a review or audit (reclassification);

red circle is the action taken when, as a result of a classification action, the employee's position is reclassified to a group and level with a lower maximum rate of pay (poste bloqué);

rejection during probation is the termination of employment of an employee for cause during the probationary period (renvoi en cours de stage);

release for incompetence or incapacity is involuntary termination of employment because of the employee's incompetence or incapacity in performing the duties of the position (renvoi pour incompétence ou incapacité);

relevant collective agreement is the collective agreement for the occupational group in which the employee's position is classified. For the Personnel Administration Group, Organization and Methods Group and Administrative Trainee Group, the relevant collective agreement is the collective agreement for the Program Administration Group (convention collective pertinente);

removal from holding is the removal of an employee from a holding rate of pay when, as a result of an alteration in rates of pay, the maximum rate applicable to the position held by an employee equals or exceeds the holding rate to which the employee has been entitled (suppression du taux maintenu);

remuneration means pay and allowances (rémunération);

report on staffing transaction see appointment document (rapport d'opération de dotation);

resignation is an employee's voluntary termination of employment, other than at the end of a specified period. Resignation must be accepted by the employer in order to be effective (démission);

retirement is a voluntary separation where the employee's entitlement is an immediate annuity (retraite);

retroactive period is that period from the effective date of the revised rates of pay up to and including the day before the day on which the collective agreement is signed or the arbitral award is rendered (période de rétroactivité);

revision is a change in the rate or rates of pay applicable to an occupational group and level (révision);

salary is the compensation received for the performance of the regular duties of a position or office, exclusive of allowances, special remuneration, overtime or other compensation or gratuities (traitement);

salary protection is the rate of pay applicable to the former classification prescribed on the employee's certificate of appointment before reclassification or as a result of work force adjustment. The employee continues to be eligible to receive any salary revisions/ increments, various merit increases or any other merit award, based on the provisions specified for this former group and level (protection salariale);

seasonal employee is a person employed to work a portion of a year (season) each year (employé saisonnier);

statutory increase see increment (augmentation statutaire);

specified period employee is a person appointed for a specified period in accordance with Section25 of the Public Service Employment Act (employé pour une période déterminée);

substantive position is the position to which an employee has been appointed, or from which an employee is being appointed within the Public Service, in accordance with the Public Service Employment Act (poste d'attache);

term employee See specified period employee (employé pour une période déterminée);

transfer is an appointment to a position where promotion or demotion rules do not apply (mutation);

vestibule period is the period within which an acting appointment must be made (four months) (période d'attente);

weekly rate is the rate of pay established by dividing the annual rate by 52.176, in the case of employees paid on an annual basis, and the rate of pay established by multiplying the daily rate of pay by 5 in the case of employees paid on a hourly basis (taux hebdomadaire);

work week is the standard number of hours of work per calendar week for an occupational group and level. Excludes any variation authorized to permit shorter summer hours (semaine de travail).