Re:  Email from RyanPoon@canada.com

By now most, if not all of you have received an email or two from the aforementioned address.  It has also come to our attention that in addition, correspondence of a similar nature has been sent directly to selected PM 2 members via the employer’s inter-office mail.

After reviewing the documents it is clear that the writer of these documents has no background or expertise in Classification, be it the old standard or the new.

There are at least three issues that require clarification as a result of this misconceived correspondence:
 
First, the comparison of the PM Legacy Standard to the new Agency Classification Standard (ACS) is like comparing apples to oranges.  Although both are fruits, the taste and texture are vastly different.  Specific to the case in point, while the PM Legacy Standard and the ACS are both classification standards, the numeric results of being classified from one to the other CANNOT be compared.  For an example, the PM Legacy Standard is broken down into four elements and the Agency Classification Standard is broken down into 12 distinct elements.  The value assigned to each element is totally different in each case.  The value range in each instance is also different. Thus there is absolutely no value or ability to compare the numbers.

The second point that must be addressed is a reminder to all Locals that under the Work Description MOU there were several grievances filed on the content of the descriptions.  In actual fact there have been grievances filed on 16 work descriptions of which, the SP0376 (formerly  PM0140) Tax Auditor is one of the grieved positions.

The third and final point is a reminder to the locals that we have an MOU in place ( as per Bulletin 20-07 and 21-07) to deal with classification issues where persons who believe that their classification rating is not sufficient can have the rating reviewed under the informal process.  The deadline for locals to provide the National Office with a list of contested positions as well any of the evaluations of the individual classification elements that the members believe are inaccurate by January 11th, 2008.

If you have any members raising the concerns outlined in either the email from RyanPoon@canada.com or from the package that they or their coworkers may have received, please provide them with a copy of this bulletin and direct any of their queries to the National Office, to either Kent MacDonald or Linda Cassidy at 613-235-6704.

In Solidarity,

Betty Bannon
National President, UTE