Agency Classification Standard ACS-SP

Agency Classification Standard ACS-SP

September 2003

What does the acronym ASC-SP stand for and what is it? ACS-SP stands for Agency Classification Standard - Services/Programmes and is the proposed classification standard that will combine the current 16 occupational groups; AS, CR, DA, DD, EG, EL, GL, GS, GT, IS, OE, OM, PG, PM, PR and ST, within the CCRA into one occupational group, the ACS-SP.

In March 2002 the CCRA concluded its conversion of its Team Leaders, Superintendents etc to the new ACS-MG occupational group. The creation of the ACS-SP is the next step in the CCRA’s classification reform initiative.

The process to create the new ACS-SP, standard started in January 2003 with the CCRA calling a meeting of the Unions to present their timeline/process for creating the new standard. The development and conversion will be broken down into five steps, with step five proposed to start March 2004.

The Process:

  1. Development of the Standard.
  2. ACS-SP structure - determination of how many levels should be in the standard.
  3. Write and evaluate work descriptions.
  4. Negotiate pay bands.
  5. Conversion – Convert current occupation groups to the new standard, PM’s are proposed for conversion in March 2004 with the others groups to follow.

Remember that conversion will not start for each current occupational group until steps 1 through 4 are completed.

The following individuals are representing UTE during the consultation process on ACS-SP: Linda Cassidy and Kent MacDonald.

Since February 2003 the CCRA has had a design team working on the new standard. To date five meetings have been held with the Unions.

The CCRA is currently writing new work descriptions (step 3). As the work descriptions are completed the unions will be provided copies for review. Before conversion can take place a new work description will have to be completed for each employee. That will mean the writing of close to 4000 work descriptions.

To stay updated on the progress please refer to the UTE National Staffing Committee reports that can be found at www.ute-sei.org. Additional information on ACS-SP can be found on the CCRA Infozone.