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PRESIDENT’S REPORT
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
DECEMBER 2005

Betty Bannon - Item 6

OFFICE MOVE:

We have been working very hard since September with many meetings dealing with technology, board room requirements, furniture and equipment needs, space allocation, floor plans, the central filing system and the list goes on.  Meetings have been held with contractors, movers, vendors, suppliers and the PSAC property management.  We have finally been given a move date of the weekend commencing December 16th.  The office will close at noon on that day with all technology off line for the duration of the weekend.  There will be no phones, website or e-mail until the equipment is reinstalled in the new office.  All locals will be notified early that week of the closing and down time.  It is our intention of having a formal open house during next scheduled Council and Presidents Conference.

NATIONAL OFFICE STAFFING:

At the last meeting I reported that we would be proceeding to fill the following positions:  IT Officer and the Executive Assistant to the National President. 

We advertised for the IT position both inside and outside the PSAC simultaneously.  The deadline for applications was October 30th.  We received a total of 41 applications.  They were then screened down by our office to 19 using the stated job requirements.  I then enlisted the aid of professionals in the IT field from the PSAC to assist us in further screening of the applications in order to set up interviews with 5 to 7 applicants.  They also agreed to assist us with the interviews.  We are currently waiting for the results of the further screening and then will set up interviews as soon as possible.  In the mean time Susan Duncan continues to act in that position and to also work on the Web and Communications.

The job description for the Executive Assistant to the National President has been finalized and sent for Classification.  I expect the results very shortly.  Once the classification has been settled we will advertise for the position and set up interviews.  In the mean time Shane O’Brien will continue acting in the position.

PRESIDENT/1ST VP DUTIES:

The 1st VP and I are in discussions to define specific duties for each position.  A draft document outlining duties was developed to assist in the discussions.  Once we have completed our discussions I will distribute a statement of duties for each position to Council and all locals.

PSAC COMMITTEES:

FINANCE:
The Finance Committee is currently reviewing the budget that will be presented to the Special NBOD meeting prior to the Convention Committees. 

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY COMMITTEE:
The following Bulletin was issued by the PSAC President to the NBOD.

MEMORANDUM

November 29, 2005

FROM: Nycole Turmel

RE: Component Representation

At most, if not all, of your Component Conventions I addressed issues with regard to Component representation that are, or are perceived to be, problematical, and indicated that I would address these issues in a substantive way before leaving office next May.

On November 14, 2005, a number of representation issues were addressed by members of the NBoD who sit on the Roles, Responsibilities and Structure Committee.  While the Committee appreciates the impact of changes in Component representation, it has concluded, as a general guiding principle, that a single Component should represent members within a single government department or agency. 

The next step in this process is to discuss Component affiliation/ representation with Component Presidents and where the potentially affected members are currently housed.  This process started on November 28, 2005 and will continue over the next two weeks.

It is my intention to render an interim decision in most, if not all, of the affected departments/ agencies by year end.  The decisions will be interim in order to provide the Components concerned with an opportunity to clarify issues with me and engage in discussions with other Components to discuss transition issues.

I have also decided that any change to Component representation that flows from this process will take effect on March 31, 2006 at the latest.

In Solidarity,

Nycole Turmel
National President

c.c. Component Presidents
REVPs

It is expected that the PSAC President will render her decision some time in December.  Any challenges to her decision will have to go to the January Board meeting.

COUNCIL:

There have been a few occasions of council members arranging and finalizing meetings, courses etc. and then asking for authorization to do so.  This is a reminder to all council members that if you are expecting to be reimbursed or to expend UTE funds for any union business, it must be authorized union business, in accordance with our By-laws and Regulations.

CRA MEETINGS:

There have been several meetings with the CRA.  After most of them a short summary of the meeting and the presentation decks were sent to Council and/or the locals.  The following is a list of the meetings :  Cash and Client Service meeting with the Political Action Committee (2X), UMI Training with the other Unions and Management representatives, the CRA Policy Review Committee for an update on the status of the Travel/Mobility Policy, Revenue Collections 2010 vision, Competency Based HR Management Advisory Group, a one on one meeting with Lysanne Gauvin, Finance and Administration reorganization Phase II, Official Languages, Transfer of Overpayment Group from HRDC, an initial Essential Service Agreement meeting, a meeting regarding the SR&D workload and a Union meeting with Michel Dorais regarding the 2010 vision.

PAY REVISION:

As you are aware the expected negotiated raises were not implemented on our paycheques on the due date.  Once the National Office was advised I immediately contacted the CRA.  We were advised of the reason for the delay and our expected reaction to their explanation was not surprising.  Unless the computers at the CRA and elsewhere were non functioning and manual cheques were required there is little else that would have satisfied as an explanation for this happening.  Grievance wording was provided to all locals and talks continued with the CRA until the matter was concluded as to the expected date of the implementation of the pay raises and what would happen for future pay raises.  The PSAC believes that this was the first time that any employer failed to implement a negotiated pay settlement on the due date.  We have also filed a Policy Grievance on this issue and a date for a hearing is being discussed.

UTE LINK ON THE INFOZONE :

Finally, on November 23rd, the employer activated a link on the INFOZONE to our website.  I am being advised that the members are reacting very positively regarding this new development and our “subscribe” count is going up daily.  This has been a long time in coming but I attribute the success of this to our never ending persistence on the issue.

Web / Communications Officer Report – December 2005

We are still dealing with a backlog of information that needs to be updated or put on the web.  We are making some headway, but we’re still about 3-4 weeks behind in the process.  During the period of this report, we worked on September’s newsletter and December’s newsletter.  We updated all of the new by-laws and regulations on the website.  We have also created the first draft of the extranet website which will store the files sent to the locals.  http://www.ute-sei.org/resource/  A username and password will be provided to everyone for access and the password will be changed from time to time.

Information Systems Officer – December 2005

We have been busy with the move and move related items.  This included looking at our current printing and photocopying equipment as well as looking at power requirements and network requirements for the new space.  Sister Duncan has spent some time in a consultative role as we looked at the various equipment needs of our new boardroom and our IT room. 

We have spent time updating systems and fixing problems on computers, including office computers and RVP laptops.  During this period, we had 3 laptops in for repair.  Two were in such bad shape that the vendor replaced the equipment.  Office systems required updating to the latest software, scanning for Trojans/malware.  We also had a monitor go ‘up in smoke’ and one pc needed replacing. 

We are examining our upcoming IT needs and putting priorities and timeframes on some of the more urgent items. 

We advertised for the IT Officer position and have received a large number of resumes that we are now going through.  We hope to have someone hired for the New Year.

GRIEVANCES

Since our last Executive Council meeting, fifty-nine (59) grievances, other than classification, were received at the National Office.

During the same period, fifty-three (53) grievances were presented dealing with a variety of issues, including:  three (3) suspensions, two (2) terminations and three (3) harassment.

There are presently one hundred and sixty (160) grievances in the National Office inventory, which have not yet been presented at the Final Level.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

During this quarter, we received two 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)

For this report, a physical review was conducted of all outstanding ITPR’s.

At the end of last quarter there were six (6) ITPR’s that had been received in the National Office that had not been presented or scheduled as of the end of that period.  During this quarter, an additional six (6) ITPR’s have been received.  Accordingly, as of this date, there were twelve (12) active ITPR’s in the National Office.

Of these twelve (12) active ITPR’s, one (1) has now been withdrawn, five (5) have recently been heard (with no decision rendered to date) and six (6) have yet to be scheduled.  Of the six (6) yet to be scheduled, all are currently in the process of disclosure and are being actively worked.

PRESIDENT’S ITINERARY
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
DECEMBER 2005

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