Dear Sisters and Brothers,

As a result of meaningful consultation between the National Office of the Union of Taxation Employees and the Canada Revenue Agency’s Corporate Organization and Classification Division (COCD), the parties have agreed to a new one-step grievance procedure to deal with job content and effective date grievances. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing this agreement was entered into by the parties with an effective date of January 1, 2010. A copy of this MOU may be found on our website at www.ute-sei.org.

For some time now, our members have been assigned national work descriptions authorized by the Functional Assistant Commissioners at the Headquarters level of the CRA and the CRA has established that only these Functional Assistant Commissioners have the authority to revise these national work descriptions and to establish the effective date of these work descriptions. Consequently, when an employee wishes to file a grievance challenging the work description and/or its effective date, only the Functional Assistant Commissioners may decide these matters.

Clause 18.18 of the collective agreement between the parties states:
“Where it appears that the nature of the grievance is such that a decision cannot be given below a particular level of authority, any or all the levels, except the final level may be eliminated by agreement of the Employer and the employee, and, where applicable, the Alliance.”  

In light of the authorities described above being vested at the Headquarters Functional Level, UTE and the CRA agreed that job content and effective date grievances were best dealt with at the final level of the grievance procedure. For greater certainty, grievances against these matters are not to be presented at levels other than the final level. Instead, members represented by UTE should complete and sign a grievance presentation form, obtain the signature for approval from an authorized local UTE representative and have the form signed by their immediate supervisor to acknowledge receipt of the grievance. The grievance and supporting documentation should then be forwarded forthwith to the UTE National Office. Grievance transmittal forms will not be required as a result of the MOU.

We ask that you give widespread distribution of this Bulletin to all UTE members and ask that all Local UTE representatives be immediately advised of this new procedure.

Should you have any questions or require any further clarification, please feel free to contact your Labour Relations Officer or the undersigned at the UTE National Office.

In Solidarity,

D. Shane O’Brien

Senior Labour Relations Officer