RCMP Civilian Member FAQ

Updated May 14, 2025

This FAQ is intended to provide additional information to Civilian Members of the RCMP who are pay-matched or touch-pointed in the PA, TC, EB and SV classifications and are represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

What is the current status of negotiations?

PSAC reached a tentative agreement with the RCMP on March 31st 2025. It has not yet been ratified as members need to vote to accept or reject the agreement.  

To vote, members must be in good standing and attend a virtual information session. During the information session, more details will be shared about the tentative agreement that was reached.

Ratification votes for the RCMP CM tentative agreement

PSAC has reached a tentative agreement with the RCMP covering 700 RCMP Civilian Members. This now means that you have the opportunity to vote to accept or reject this agreement.  

To vote, members must be in good standing and attend a mandatory information session. This information session provides an overview of the agreement and offers the opportunity to ask questions about the details of the contract. 

Please register to the session you want to attend:  

• May 20, 2025, 7 p.m. Pacific Time (English session) 
• May 23, 2025, 7 p.m. Atlantic Time (English session) 
• May 22, 2025, 7 p.m. Eastern Time (French session) 
• May 21, 2025, 7 p.m. Eastern Time (English session) 

If you are not a member in good standing, please fill out this form or contact your regional office to update your membership status and be eligible to vote.  

The info sessions will be held via Zoom. Once registered you should receive a confirmation email  (it may go to your spam so make sure to check). 

Important details about the RCMP CM tentative agreeement

Pensions 

The pension plan is legislated by law, not by the collective agreement. Therefore, the new agreement does not change CMs pension provisions. 

Compensation provisions 

The new agreement does not change CMs’ compensation provisions under Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). 

VAC has sole authority to determine whether the member’s medical condition or death was attributable to, or aggravated by, service in the RCMP, and the extent to which the medical condition is pensionable. 

Career mobility 

The new agreement does not change CMs career mobility rights within the core public administration (CPA), they are required to terminate their position and CM status to accept a new position.  

Yes, there is a difference in the pension agreement between CMs and the CPA, and this may reduce members’ mobility but fixing this issue would likely require legislative changes. 

Vacation 

RCMP CMs and the CPA have different accrual rates for vacation. Once the collective agreement is signed, all members will be switched to the new accrual rate. This means that if a member has not already reached the next increment under the RCMP accrual rate, they will have to wait until the next milestone as found in the collective agreement.  

That being said, everyone will receive one extra week of vacation, another additional week and two personal days per year.  

Also, any carry-over leave will not be pro-rated to reflect the change from a 40-hour to a 37.5 hour work week.  

Overtime 

The new collective agreement offers overtime at 1.5, 1.75 or 2.0 regular rate of pay, depending on certain factors.  

For example, members can qualify for overtime at 2.0 times their rate of pay if they work more than 7.5 hours on a regular workday, more than 7.5 hours on the first day of rest, or work on the second day of rest.   

The main difference: the collective agreement offers 1.5 instead of 2.0 times the rate of pay on the first day of rest.  

However, when the new agreement is ratified, CMs will convert to a 37.5-hour work week. Because the CMs annual salary will remain unchanged this will result in a 6.6% increase in the value of the hourly rate of pay used to calculate overtime. 

Who represented the employer during the negotiations?

Under the FPSLRA, the Treasury Board is the bargaining authority, not the RCMP.

What happened to deeming?

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that both RMs and CMs should enjoy the fundamental right to be unionized and to bargain collectively. Two years later, amendments to the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act (FPSLRA) came into effect, allowing RMs to form their own union, which legally could not include CMs. CMs could instead align themselves with existing public sector unions based on classification. 

The deeming was to occur on April 26, 2018, and was later amended to May 21, 2020. However, it did not take place as planned. 

As part of the deeming planification most Civilian Member (CM) classifications had been already pay-matched or touch-pointed to existing public service classifications. PSAC made applications in 2020 to the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board (PSLREB) under Section 58 of the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) to represent CMs pay-matched or touch-pointed in the corresponding PSAC bargaining units (PA, TC, SV and EB).  

In 2020, PSAC established a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Treasury Board to maintain some of the superior terms and conditions of employment of CMs and protect them from losing these superior conditions by moving directly into the collective agreements of their respective bargaining units. From this time, CMs terms and conditions of employment have effectively been frozen, except for salary increases, CMs do not benefit from negotiated provisions in the CAs. Under the provisions found in this MoU, PSAC and Treasury Board had to enter into negotiation regarding transition measures for CMs upon deeming. 

Finally, in November 2023, it was announced that deeming would be postponed indefinitely.

If deeming is postponed indefinitely, am I still a member of PSAC?

If members ratify the RCMP tentative agreement, they will be transitioned into the core public service under Treasury Board as part of a Memorandum of Understanding in the respective collective agreements of the SV, TC, EB and PA bargaining groups.  

Deeming and unionization are two different topics. With or without deeming, the right of CMs to unionize is managed by the FPSLRA. 

Under the FPSLRA, CMs were not permitted to join the National Police Federation. The only way CMs could engage in discussions about entitlements that should be protected upon deeming was by unionizing before deeming took place. Otherwise, those entitlements could have been lost. 

PSAC introduced motions under section 58 of the FPSLRA to formally declare CMs as PSAC members. The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB) reviewed these motions and declared that CMs who are pay-matched or touch-pointed in the PA, TC, EB and SV classifications fall under the scope of the bargaining certificate held by PSAC.

What is the status of dues for RCMP Civilian Members?

The deduction of union dues for RCMP civilian members began on April 3, 2024. 
 
The bulk of PSAC dues are allocated to negotiate strong collective agreements, adjudicate grievances filed by members against their employers, and provide education courses on a wide range of topics for members. In addition, dues are spent on communication, political action (such as lobbying all levels of government for legislation that benefits workers) and organizing initiatives. 

Dues percentage rates are calculated against the first salary step in members’ classification – not actual salary – and are not applied against overtime or bonuses. 

More information about union dues and how they are collected. 

What are the benefits of becoming a PSAC member?

PSAC’s objective is to negotiate CM-specific transitional provisions in the current PA, TC, SV and EB collective agreements. This will allow CMs to continue to enjoy most of their current benefits while also being able to improve their terms and conditions of employment in future rounds of bargaining. 

Additionally, since 2021, the Union of Safety and Justice Employees has provided CMs with assistance on numerous issues, including providing support in the grievance process found under the RCMP Act. 

Until a collective agreement is in place, CMs must file grievances under the RCMP’s grievance process. It is our understanding that the RCMP grievance process is unaccountable, broken, often takes several years, and doesn’t provide for independent adjudication. 

If the tentative agreement is ratified, CMs will have access to a more robust and fair grievance process found under the Treasury Board collective agreements. 

How can I voice my concerns and get involved?

As your bargaining committee, we want to hear from you! All questions, concerns, and suggestions are welcome. You can email us at CM-INFO-MC@psac-afpc.com