The current agreement on benefits expired December 31, 2016. Health and dental benefits should have been negotiated and put to bed a long time ago. Benefits are negotiated for all NAV CANADA employees at the same time through the NAV CANADA Agents Bargaining Association (NCBAA), while management has their own plan.

Despite the best efforts of the NCBAA benefits bargaining team, they have been unable to reach a settlement. NAV CANADA wants concessions on your benefits, and the team has refused to give them. As you would expect from employees working for a company returning millions to their customers, the NCBAA is looking for improvements, particularly a dental plan for retirees. The bargaining team has made many offers to NAV CANADA in an effort to settle the round, but so far all proposals have been rejected.

The NCBAA is aware that members are questioning why it is not fighting the employer harder. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. If we went through the normal process of getting a settlement, our next step would be to go to arbitration. The NCBAA is unanimous in its opinion that going to arbitration on benefits would be a mistake. We believe we only stand to lose in that process.

The current benefits cycle is 2017, 2018 and 2019. With no agreement reached, your benefits continue status quo. The benefits bargaining team continues to try to reach a settlement that will include improvements that all represented deserve.