OTTAWA – ACFO met with the Treasury Board negotiating team for our third bargaining session March 26-27.

The negotiating team is pleased to report that we were able to make significant progress and we anticipate that we will be in a position to complete non-monetary negotiations during the May 6-8 and June 3-5 bargaining sessions.

We’re Worth It!

Finance and accounting professionals are in demand. The Conference Board of Canada reports in its 2008 Compensation Planning Outlook:

The pressures of a hot labour market currently manifest themselves in ever-increasing recruitment and retention challenges. Nearly three-quarters of organizations (73 percent) are experiencing difficulty attracting or retaining employees with particular skills. The organizations that are more likely to experience these difficulties include those in the natural resources sector (excluding oil and gas; 100 per cent), education and health (85 per cent), and government (81 percent). The skills in highest demand are consistent with those cited in 2006 and include accounting and finance, skilled trades and engineering.

How Can You Support Your Bargaining Team?

In support of our proposals for fair and competitive compensation, ACFO has retained the services of an independent third party to conduct a compensation study.

The compensation study will compare FI compensation to our counterparts in the broader financial community. In order to complete this important exercise we need to compile a bank of reliable and representative job descriptions from across the country and across FI levels.

If your position has been classified in the past five years, sending a copy of your job description will assist in the preparation of the compensation study. Share your work description with the bargaining team by sending us an email at schamberlain@acfo-acaf.com.