ITEM 5

PRESIDENTS FOLLOW UP ITEMS

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

FEBRUARY 2003

• I met with Stephanie Copeland on December 12^th regarding our Designations.  I have sent a letter to Rob Wright requesting that they agree to a Panel Review for binding decisions on the designations versus using the PSSRB.  It is a much faster process and the Treasury Board agreed to it during the last round.  The PSSRB also supports this process rather than tie up the Board to hear each argument on all disputed designations.

• I have advised the CCRA that we would like our UMC Agreement ready to sign by the June UMC meeting.  We will set dates for discussions in March.

• The suggestion that I sent to the PSAC regarding the printing of their calendar next year using both their logo and the different component logos was well received and I will follow this up in the late summer or early fall.

• The Fryer report has been placed on the Discussion Items agenda.

• Guidelines for the Presidents’ and Equity representatives on Committees was prepared and shared with the Council in January and has been placed on the agenda to adopt for this meeting.

• The “HELP” Binder for Local Officers was mailed to each local prior the end of 2002.

• The Non UTE Events list has been updated and distributed to the Council.

• The donations that we passed in December have been sent out.

• The formal name for the Local Development Course is called “Developing Membership Activism”.

• The PSAC Print Shop was not able to do the printing for our Questionnaire so we’ve made arrangements with an outside printer.

• I have asked Jean Laronde if the “Death Benefits” are affected by Acts of Terrorism.

• I have also asked Jean Laronde if it is the intention of the CCRA to pay the MGs out of the CAS centrally out of Ottawa.

• I met with the CCRA regarding the issue of mandatory on-line applications.  They confirmed that it is not mandatory in all cases.  To become mandatory all employees must have sufficient access to computers and discussions should take place with the local union representatives.  They have re-issued a Bulletin to the field confirming these requirements.  If locals believe that their members do not have sufficient access and on-line applications are mandatory in their local they should discuss the issue with Management and file grievances if the issue is not resolved.

• CCRA advised that documents that are accessible by Taxpayers should be written in the language of the taxpayer.  Internal documents may be written in the language of the worker.  People who are sitting in  “bilingual” positions should be able to write documents in either language.  When dealing with taxpayers, it is the language of the taxpayer that should be used.  In this case, a “bilingual” designated person may be required.  With my schedule, I have not been able to set a meeting with Marcel Ethier to be briefed on the Language Pilot of the CCRA as of yet.

• An exclusion list has been shared with the Council.

• An article on the MG pay difference with the PSAC and PIPSC has been written, distributed to Locals and posted on our Website.

• Linda has written an article on “Unauthorized Access” for me but due to her computer going to the shop for repairs I have not received it at the time of writing of this report.  When it is received, I will share it with the CCRA with the intent of publishing it jointly.

• At the meeting with the CCRA, PSAC and ourselves regarding DETAX we were briefed on all actions and precautions taken by the CCRA.  It was agreed by the parties that the lawyers for the CCRA and the Bargaining Agent would meet and discuss a “plan of action”.  The Bargaining Agent will also be setting up a meeting with representatives of the employees of the Internal Revenue Service.

Respectfully submitted,

Betty Bannon

National President