The Public Sector Employees Union, which represents Canadian Revenue Agency employees, has reached a preliminary deal with the federal government, ending a strike by 35,000 workers immediately after the tax season.

The announcement of a potential agreement comes after the Public Service Alliance and the Canadian government reached separate deals that ended a strike by more than 120,000 other government employees.

CRA employees represented by the PSAC Tax Employees Union were still on strike two days after the federal tax filing deadline.

In this regard, the union asked members to return to work on Thursday, May 4 by 11:30 AM Eastern Time at the latest.

PSAC said in a statement that the preliminary deal includes wage increases totaling 12.6 percent doubled over the term of the agreement from 2021 to 2024, plus an additional fourth year in the agreement protecting employees from inflation.

The preliminary agreement also includes a lump sum amount that goes into the pension account of $2,500 one time and represents an additional 3.6 percent of the salary for the regular member.

In its special release, the Canadian Revenue Agency CRA said it and PSAC reached a temporary settlement regarding remote work outside the collective agreement.

It said both agreed to conduct a review of the policy on virtual work arrangements, establishing a committee to advise the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner on staff concerns.

The union earlier on Wednesday threatened to send its members to disrupt a Liberal Party conference in Ottawa on Thursday if CRA did not come up with a "fair" deal.
The separate agreements negotiated by PSAC with the government included an 11.5 percent wage increase over four years.

Earlier in the negotiations, the Tax Employees Union was pushing for a 20.5 percent increase over three years.