A historic union win on Dec. 12 will unmuzzle government scientists, allowing them to defend the scientific integrity of their research.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) won the inclusion of enshrining scientific integrity in their collective agreement with the federal government. Members of PIPSC include scientists, auditors, information technology experts and public service professionals. The memorandum of agreement in the new collective agreement states employees “shall have the right to express themselves on science and their research, with respecting the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector adopted on April 2, 2012, without being designated as an official media spokesperson.”
Susan O’Donnell, a Fredericton-based federal researcher at the National Research Council, is a member of the union’s science advisory committee. She told CBC that that scientific integrity clause in the collective agreement is important because as scientists who work for the government and the public, “we need to make sure that the public has confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of our research.”
“Before if we were, for example, providing advice or information to the government and the government was misrepresenting it or not using it in a way that was integral to what the science was saying should happen, we were muzzled effectively and there was nothing we could do about it,” O’Donnell stated, “If science was not being used in a way that it was intended or if it was not being represented properly, now as scientists, we can speak directly to the public and that includes the media so that means public trust in science can be ensured.”
PIPSC hopes that more researchers and scientists will successfully negotiate scientific integrity clauses in their collective agreements.