President’s Report - Executive Council

Marc Brière - Item 6

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING:
SALARY RE-OPENING CLAUSE:

The arbitrator in this case has been appointed and the parties will present their arguments before the arbitration panel on Wednesday, January 31, 2018. In the meantime, if CRA receives a new bargaining mandate, we are ready to go back to the bargaining table.

NEXT ROUND OF BARGAINING:

The preparations for the next round of bargaining are going well. The composition of the National Bargaining Committee has been finalized with the appointment of the last five (5) committee members and five (5) Regional Vice-Presidents. The Staffing Committee met in October to write down contractual demands that were added to the other demands prepared by the National Office’s Labour Relations staff. This initiative comes in response to our withdrawal from the Special Committee on the Letter of Agreement regarding various staffing issues.

The National Bargaining Committee will hold meetings January 8 to 12, 2018 to prepare the document for our contractual demands. The bargaining team will then be established and will finalize the choice of priorities for the next round of bargaining. We expect the next round to begin in the spring of 2018.

PROBLEMS WITH THE PHOENIX PAY SYSTEM:

Some of our members unfortunately continue to have problems with their pay. Our recommendation to these members is to speak to their supervisor regarding this situation. If the problem persists, the members can submit a grievance. They should also bring up their problems with the Local, which might be able to provide assistance. The UTE has established a memorandum of understanding with CRA regarding the compensation problems. I sent a reminder to that effect with all the Locals last October. The UTE Regional Vice-Presidents continue to provide support to the Locals in order to resolve the more sensitive cases. My Executive Assistant, Brother Daniel Camara, also gets involved with CRA officials when necessary.

Regarding union dues, I asked our finance department to make sure we are receiving the right amounts. After checking it would seem that the Locals are receiving the right amounts. However, the National UTE is only receiving a monthly amount of $19.40 per member instead of $19.75 per member since the increase of $0.35 per member per month that was to be implemented in January 2017, but did not take place. I met with the PSAC National President to discuss the matter and we are monitoring the situation closely in order to resolve the problem.

AGMs:

As detailed in my activity report, the period of annual general meetings began in October. To date, I have had the pleasure of attending meetings in the Atlantic Region and in the Greater Toronto Area. I also took the opportunity to visit several CRA offices to meet with as many members as possible. I had the opportunity to speak to several of them. The main topics of conversation were staffing issues and collective bargaining. The problems had by our term status members working in Call Centres were also discussed. In the Greater Toronto Area, the big issue was obviously the modernization of the services that are currently the subject of intensive consultations between the employer, the unions and the members in question.

2018 PSAC CONVENTION:

We submitted our list of UTE delegates who will be representing our Component at the 2018 Convention to PSAC before the deadline of November 24, 2017. The National Board of Directors (NBoD) will be meeting December 12 to 14 to revise the budget that will be proposed at the 2018 Convention.

NATIONAL OFFICE STAFFING:  

We have appointed Sister Louise James to an Administrative Support position for a period not exceeding four (4) months in order to fill in for the absence of Sister Christiane Pagé who will be absent from work for an indeterminate period of time. While we wish Christiane a speedy return, we are pleased to be able to rely on Louise’s services and we thank her for having accepted to help us.

MEETINGS WITH CRA:

I have had telephone conversations with senior managers regarding various issues and current topics such as:

• Processing delays in taxpayer files 
• The working conditions (benefits) of the compensation advisors working at the Agency versus those working at the Treasury Board
• Interpretation of Article 34.03 (a) of our current collective agreement regarding the accumulation of annual vacation credits for term employees.
• Problems experienced by our members working in the Call Centres (training, abuse from the public, lack of resources, etc.).

MEDIA RELATIONS:

I have had various discussions with certain media outlets. I gave an interview to the Financial Post in October regarding the file processing delays, the frustration of taxpayers and the impacts this is having on our members working in the call centres.

MODERNIZATION OF SERVICES - GREATER TORONTO AREA (GTA):

I have had discussions with the Regional Vice-Presidents regarding the consultations held at the regional level in order to remain informed on the latest developments on this matter. The consultation process is coming to a close and I expect to receive a summons soon to participate in a national level meeting to revise one last time the final version of the modernization plan.

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

We produced two videos (in both languages) in the last quarter.  The first was an introduction of UTE’s Executive Council.  The second video was recorded during the Presidents’ Conference and featured conference participants commenting on their favorite part of the conference.  Both videos were well received.  The videos were produced using our new video and teleprompter equipment.  We are planning to produce more videos in the future.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

All IT systems have been running well. Regular software maintenance of internal computers, servers and network was performed. We renewed our Symantec AV licenses. We purchased 2 webcams for Skype for Business use in the national office, one for our main boardroom and a desktop version.

DONATIONS / SPONSORSHIPS: as of November 17, 2017

NON-UTE EVENTS: as of November 17, 2017

GRIEVANCES:

Since our last Executive Council meeting, the National Office received twenty-five (25) grievances, other than classification.

During the same period, fifty-six (56) grievances were presented.  Forty-two (42) grievances were withdrawn, and three (3) of these withdrawals resulted in Memoranda of Settlements. Some grievances were reported during previous quarters. In addition to grievances withdrawn or settled, were also received thirty-seven (37) replies from CRA, all of which were denied. 

1. Grievance held in abeyance at request of PSAC pending judicial review of WSIB appeal.

2. Grievances are being held in abeyance at the grievor’s request pending a CHRC complaint.

3. Two grievances are held in abeyance at the request of grievor and legal counsel pending the grievor’s criminal trial. Two grievances are pending settlement discussions and two are held in abeyance at the request of the grievor.

4. Waiting implementation of MOA. 

There are presently forty-three (43) grievances in the National Office inventory which have not yet been presented at the Final Level dealing with a variety of issues.

POLICY GRIEVANCE

There were no new policy grievances filed during this period.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

We did not receive any new classification grievances received during this quarter. 

INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY REVIEWS (ITPRs)

During this quarter, the National Office did not present any ITPRs. Four (4) new ITPRs were received in the National Office concerning staffing.

CRA POLICY REVIEW GRIEVANCES

Currently there are no new CRA Policy Grievances in our inventory.

Nov 23, 2017

PRESIDENT’S ITINERARY

DATE             ACTIVITY

September

11                   Meeting with CRA Officials - Ottawa
13 - 16           Quebec and Montreal regions’ Interregional meeting - Pointe-Claire
14                   Conference Call - Nancy Chahwan, CRA’s Deputy Commissioner
18                    Meeting - President and Vice-President from AFS group/PIPSC - Ottawa
25                 Video recording session – Introduction of the Executive Council - Ottawa
26 – 27         Executive Council meeting - Ottawa
28 – 30         Presidents' Conference - Ottawa   

October

12                   Meet and Greet - Ottawa TSO Local 70010 - Ottawa
12                   AGM Connaught Building Local 70021 - Ottawa
13                    Media training for newly elected NBoD* Officers - Ottawa
17 – 19           PSAC NBoD* meeting - Ottawa
20                   Visit of the Saint-John TSO - Saint-John
21                   AGM Saint-John Local 60005 - Saint-John
23                 Visit of Key Industries - Saint-John
24                  AGM Sydney Local 80004 - Sydney
25                    AGM Toronto-West Local 00051 - Mississauga
26                    AGM Barrie Local 00052 - Barrie

November

1                      AGM Summerside Local 90006 - Summerside
2                      AGM Charlottetown Local 90002, Charlottetown
7                      AGM St. John's TC Local 90000 – St. John’s
8                      AGM St. John's TSO Local 90001 -St. John’s
9                      AGM Moncton Local 60008 – Moncton
14                    AGM Halifax Local 80003 - Halifax

*=National Board of Directors

MEMBERSHIP:

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Brière
National President