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President’s Report
Executive Council
June 2004

Betty Bannon - Item 6

UTE/CEUDA:

We have met with CEUDA a couple of times and have now finalized the jurisdiction for HQ. Major transfers of members, as well as, the allocating of new members have been completed. Also, the errors being identified by the locals are being acted upon as soon as possible. I have advised the President of CEUDA of our position on the members in F&A, HR, IT and the Regional Offices within the CRA. He was not surprised, since he had already read it on our website. I will be discussing with the Executive Committee our possible next steps at our June meeting and will proceed with the actions that are necessary.

I remind the Council and all Locals that someone in each local should be checking their membership lists on a regular basis to make sure that the members are properly allocated to UTE.

Designations:

Designations were signed-off on May 10, 2004. In all, 733 positions have been designated; of which 450 belong to UTE. These are broken down as follows:

All designated positions within Assessment and Collections Branch and the Appeals Branch deal with Client Services, CPP, EI, Child Tax Benefits and GST rebate. The majority of those designated positions within Finance and Administration Branch are Accommodations, Telecommunications and Security positions and a few are related to mail distribution operations. The two IT positions are IT support staff within Taxation Centres.

UTE identified 7 positions it wanted removed from the designation list. 3 were local executives, three were picket captains and one was a former local executive now a union representative on a Joint Local Union/Management Health and Safety Committee. To date, the Agency agreed to remove from the designation list, 2 of the 3 local executives and the 3 picket captains. They refused our request for the remaining 2 positions, stating that the incumbents of those positions were the only ones capable of performing the duties of their positions.

Web/Communications:

Our primary web/communications project for the past five months was the redesign of the website. The website was redesigned based on the specifications drafted by the Communications Committee and input from others. All minutes and reports produced since the last convention have been converted and are available on the new site. The old website was kept up to date while the new site was being redesigned, which in some cases meant a duplication of effort. The website was officially launched on May Day.

The website:

• uses DreamWeaver templates to facilitate updates
• uses drop down DHTML menus
• uses Cold Fusion and Access databases to drive dynamic content such as the event calendar and the phone book
• is completely bilingual and each page is linked to it’s equivalent page in the other language
• has a search utility that allows for full text searching of all the site content
• has a photo library
• has been submitted to search engines such as Google, Altavista, etc.

The technologies used on the website will allow for other enhancements to the website including items such as online registrations, message forums, online polls, etc. should these become requirements later.

We worked with the Communications Committee to produce April’s newsletter and handled the printing logistics for the newsletter. The newsletter contained four pages as well as two inserts.

We took a number of pictures at the March 2004 President’s Conference including the Friday demonstration and also posted many pictures from local activities that were held over the period. We wrote various press releases and short articles for the website in both official languages. We are now monitoring the media using FPinfomart and we create copies of relevant press releases for internal distribution. Support was also provided to the Information Officer and other staff on an as required basis.

We are currently working on the UTE Owner’s Manual and the UTE Achievements Booklet (the red books). We have asked for updates from all staff that are part of the various Committees mentioned in the books and have only received a response from one of them. We will be printing these in the near future and they will likely not be re-printed again for another year. Please ensure that the elements of the manual that pertain to your areas of expertise are up to date and contact Sue with your changes.

Information Technology:

More than 75% of our IT resources have gone towards our e-mail system during this reporting period. Because of difficulties encountered with GroupWise, we have discontinued its use and have opted for a more generic system. This new system, “Imail”, offers pop3, SMTP and web mail server access. We have also chosen to use Outlook as our e-mail client in the National Office as it comes with Office XP, which has now been installed on each work station.

We have four (4) types of email user in our organization:

• National Office staff, which will use Outlook as their client on our LAN (local area network)
• RVPs, using their existing email client, will see no change as before, the only difference is that their email is coming from a different server.
• Locals, still using web access to get their email, but now have added features such as their own calendar, email forwarding and vacation rules wizard.
• National President, whom is a combination of all of the above right now.

There have been a few problems since the change over which have either been corrected or recommendations are under consideration to resolve the issue. Considering we went from a non-standard system to a more industry standard platform and had to convert over 25 GB of data, several address books and personal calendars, I’m surprised that we didn’t have more problems than we did. Overall the administration on the new system should be much easier to manage, as well as, the IT Officer now has the capability of remotely administrating the email system, if required.

Non UTE Events:

Donations/Sponsorships:

Under the Protocol on Mourning UTE is mandated to make donations under certain circumstances. Until now these monies have been charged to the Donations line item thus decreasing the funds available for other donations. As well, even if the Donations line item has been fully expended, we would still be required to overspend the line item due to the Protocol. So, I have asked the Chair of Finance to create a new line item called Benevolence for the next budget.

GRIEVANCES

Since our last Executive Council meeting, thirty-eight (38) grievances, other than classification, were received at the National Office.

During the same period, fifteen (15) grievances were presented dealing with a variety of issues including one suspension.

1 Mediation refused by employer. Referred to PSSRB and waiting for formal hearing.

2 First hearing held May 25, 2004, ongoing.

There are presently one hundred and fifty-eight (158) grievances in the National Office inventory which have not yet been presented at the Final Level.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

During this quarter, we received six (6) classification grievances.

APPEALS

During this period, no appeal was received in the National Office where the Union of Taxation Employees was requested to provide representation.

INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY REVIEWS (ITPR'S)

There are ninety-six (96) ITPR’s on inventory. During this period, four (4) Independent Third Party Reviews (ITPRs) were received in the National Office. Thirty-six (36) have been presented for which we are waiting for official replies. Seventeen (17) are active and the remaining forty-three (43) are closed.

Previously, we had reported on two cases pending before the Federal Court, one involving corrective action following an allowed ITPR and one involving an Individual Feedback decision. The former application was dismissed by the Court as it considered the matter moot as a result of the applicant having been subsequently appointed to the position in question. The second case was also dismissed with reasons by the Court. After consulting legal counsel, it was decided not to pursue this matter before the Federal Court of Appeal.

The general challenge against the CRA’s Staffing Program filed by PIPSC on an application for judicial review in the Federal Court has also been heard and decided. As you are probably aware, the PSAC participated as an intervenor in these proceedings. Once again, the Federal Court dismissed the application and found that the PIPSC application was “ill-founded, speculative and premature”. As a result, we must continue to seek specific and persuasive cases to bring before the Federal Court in order to ensure that our members, in participating in the CRA Staffing Program and exercising the right of recourse flowing from this Program, are treated in a manner consistent with the principles of procedural fairness and natural justice.

ADJUDICATIONS

The previous report indicated that 15 grievances at adjudication did not appear in the PSAC data base. All but one was found. One was withdrawn, one is presently being heard, seven were closed and five remain active. As petty as it may seem, the difficulty arose because of misspelled names. We are still looking for the missing file.

President’s Itinerary
Executive Council
June 2004

In Solidarity,

Betty Bannon,
National President UTE

Membership Count Report

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