Union News - September 2021
Sisters, Brothers and Friends,
Summer is coming to an end and I hope you have taken the opportunity to take a well-deserved vacation and spend some quality time with your loved ones. I know that for some of you it has been a difficult summer with the raging forest fires, especially in British Columbia, Manitoba and Northern Ontario. Our hearts go out to the communities affected by these events. That is why the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) has donated $10,000 to the Red Cross Forest Fire Relief Fund in British Columbia and $5,000 to the Ontario Red Cross to help communities in need as a result of the fires.
Since the beginning of 2021, Indigenous communities have been greatly affected by the devastating discoveries of burial sites of Indigenous children stolen from their communities. This has caused us all to step back, reflect and learn. In solidarity, UTE made a $10,000 donation to Indspire. Indspire is a national Indigenous charity that invests in First Nations, Inuit and Métis education for the long-term benefit of these individuals, their families and communities, and Canada.
Since the beginning of the year, we have been quite busy and several issues have come to our attention.
In February, the Minister of National Revenue announced the hiring of 2,000 new call center agents to assist the millions of taxpayers who have received Canada Emergency Benefits in preparing their tax returns. We welcomed this news because our members working in the Agency's call centers were in dire need of these reinforcements. This announcement was a victory for UTE, which has long advocated for more call center agents to better serve Canadians.
On the other hand, the Minister also announced that the CRA had contracted out to a private sector third party service provider, Maximus, a company based in the U.S., to respond to general taxpayer inquiries regarding emergency benefits. UTE and PSAC protested this privatization of public sector jobs and immediately denounced this unfortunate and ill-advised decision.
In March, UTE and PSAC jointly launched the "Uncover the costs" campaign to publicly denounce this privatization of federal public sector jobs.
Despite assurances from the Minister that the contract would not be renewed when it expired, I have been following up closely with the Commissioner of the CRA over the past few months to ensure that this is indeed the case. I am now pleased to confirm that the contract has not been renewed. However, we will need to remain vigilant to combat any future attempts by the employer to outsource jobs.
Over the past few months, we have been following up regularly with the employer to ensure that the implementation of the latest collective agreement is going well and on schedule for both our current and former members.
In March, our members received general compensation for the failures of the Phoenix payroll system. Unfortunately, the federal government decided to tax these payments based on an interpretation by the Canada Revenue Agency. The PSAC and its Components intend to appeal this decision, which we believe to be wrong. In addition, former PSAC members, including those from UTE, are still waiting to receive the money they are owed because the form they are required to complete has not yet been made available by Treasury Board. This form should be available online shortly. We find this delay unacceptable. We have been lobbying the political decision-makers to get this issue resolved. I would like to point out that several current UTE members, who are term employees, are among those who have not received the general compensation. This is because they were not employed by the employer at the time the agreement was signed between the PSAC and Treasury Board on October 23, 2020. This situation is deplorable but there is nothing we can do about it.
In May, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the remedy for the delay in implementing the new Clause 60.01 of the new collective agreement for call center employees.
In July, we signed another Memorandum of Understanding regarding the issue of the hours of work in the Assessment, Benefit, Service Branch (ABSB) call centers. The parties agreed to establish a joint working group to implement the agreement.
Also in July, we were finally able to hold our Triennial Convention after having to delay it for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The convention took place virtually and I am very pleased to report that everything went very well considering the circumstances. Once again, the delegates present renewed their confidence in me by re-electing me as UTE National President for a two (2) year term. I am very honoured and I would like to thank them warmly for their continued support and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our union representatives for their involvement and their great dedication to our members. I would also like to wish the best of success to all the other officers who were elected during convention and I promise you that you can count on my support throughout your term of office.
I look forward to continuing to work closely with the officers of the Executive Council as well as our Locals in order to advocate fiercely on behalf of all our members. I pledge again to serve you to the best of my ability and to spare no effort.
We will face new challenges. We will soon be returning to the bargaining table and we are feverishly preparing for that. Our bargaining committee and bargaining team will be in place shortly to complete our package of demands and establish our priorities. We are also continuing our discussions with the employer regarding the possible gradual return of more and more employees to the Agency's premises. And we will be watching for the possibility that the federal government may try to impose mandatory vaccination on all employees. Rest assured that nothing will be put in place until the new government is sworn in and we will be consulted before anything is decided.
Dear members, I thank you for your support and invite you to contact any of your local union representatives if you have a problem or question as they are there to assist you.
I look forward to serving you over the next two years.
In Solidarity,
Marc Brière
National President