Workforce Adjustment Committee

OVERVIEW

The Work Force Adjustment Appendix (WFA) sets out the job security provisions negotiated by the PSAC in its role as bargaining agent for UTE members. The Appendix, while once a Directive separate from the collective agreement, is now an integral part of your contract.

The UTE has its own Work Force Adjustment Committee, put into place as a watchdog over employer attempts to cut staff or move workloads that impact our members. The committee meets on an ongoing basis.

And while Revenue Canada was one of the very few departments to actually increase its work force through the years of federal public service downsizing, the UTE’s WFA Committee still carried out important work.

• Through the Joint Action Committees, we ensured that many PSAC members declared surplus in other departments were placed in vacant Revenue Canada positions.
• As well, not all UTE members escaped the slash and burn policies of successive Conservative and Liberal governments. As an example, the WFA Committee was successful in having a staff reductions exercise at the Ottawa Taxation Centre (now Ottawa Technology Centre) declared a work force adjustment situation. In this way, the affected employees came under the provisions of the Work Force Adjustment Directive and received its protections and rights, rather than being subjected to the unfettered discretion of managers.
• The Committee challenged the employer at the Public Service Staff Relations Board with the filing of numerous Section 99 references. As a result, the first reference heard by the PSSRB was successful and found that the employer contravened the collective agreement. The Committee expects that other Section 99 references will be successful at the PSSRB.
• In addition there have been a small number of cases where certain management teams have used the Workforce Adjustment Appendix for our members as a direct result of the committee’s intervention.

The Committee continues to try to educate all members of the importance of ensuring the correct application of the Workforce Adjustment Appendix. As well, the Committee continues to remain vigilant to all situations that can create a workforce adjustment and counsels the members to file grievances as well as challenging the employer at the Public Service Staff Relations Board.

Fortunately, the PSAC was successful in having the WFA provisions incorporated into your collective agreement While not ironclad, these provisions provide a greater level of protection than the “job guarantee” provided Agency employees under the transfer from departmental status. The Workforce Adjustment Appendix is the member’s job security. We must all defend it from the employer’s attempts to violate it.

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