- UNASSIGNED UTE MEMBERS
Following an agreement with CRA officials on a process to identify our members' workplaces, we transferred this list to them. Upon receipt of the updated data, we will be able to transfer the report to the PSAC Membership Administration section to make the necessary updates.
Unfortunately, I do not have any new developments regarding the recovery of missing funds for our Locals. I will continue to monitor the situation closely with the PSAC and will keep you informed as soon as possible.
- PAYMENT OF THE BILINGUALISM BONUS
For more than a year now, I have been following up regularly with the Agency on the problems with the Phoenix system regarding the payment of the bilingualism bonus for members holding bilingual positions.
I recently received encouraging news from the CRA's Human Resources Branch about the payment of the bilingualism bonus.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is getting closer to resolve many of the known systemic issues regarding the bilingualism bonus.
The CRA still needs to complete testing to confirm that the correction of bilingualism bonus functionality works.
The employer will be providing a national communication to all CRA employees once their testing is completed with PSPC.
In addition, the "Known Phoenix issues" page on InfoZone will also be updated with this information.
I am waiting to receive more information from the employer to know when the tests will be completed and when the national communication will be sent.
I will keep you informed of any new developments as soon as it is possible to do so.
- BASIC ACCOUNTING TRAINING COURSE
Our Financial Administration Officer, Liam Merrigan, is making the final necessary changes. We are confident that the final product will be completed by June 30. We will then be able to test the course in September at a regional/interregional meeting before making it an officially approved UTE course.
- WORK DESCRIPTIONS FOR NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
We have received PSAC's decision regarding the statement of duties for the Senior Labour Relations Officer position. This position is held by Brother Shane O'Brien. The PSAC concluded that the classification of the position should be increased. As a result, the position moves from Band 12 to Band 13.
This completes the exercise of reviewing the statement of duties for the classification of National Office employees. For your information, all other positions have retained their original classification level.
- MEMBERS' TESTIMONIES ON THE UTE WEBSITE
At our last Executive Council meeting, we were asked to consider the possibility of dedicating a section of our website that would allow our members to include testimonials. We have asked our Communications Officer, Sister Susan Duncan, to explore this possibility.
According to her research, testimonial pages are mainly used by websites that sell a product. There are two main categories of testimonials, real testimonies/evaluations and positive testimonies - marketing pages.
Real testimonies/evaluations: These allow any verified user (someone who has used the product or service) to provide feedback and evaluations, whether negative or positive. These are real testimonial pages and can be found on most sites that sell products. Visitors to these sites feel comfortable ordering the product based on actual feedback from other users. Visitors can avoid buying a product following bad reviews.
On our Facebook pages, members can make both positive and negative comments. We monitor discussions and although we leave most comments, those who attack individuals or hijack a thread with very negative comments are hidden and sometimes users are banned. It is fair to assume that if we go ahead with the idea, we run the risk of having similar problems. This is not a real testimonial page if we edit the content. It would be difficult to ensure that only members in good standing write comments.
The development cost ranges from $1,000 to $3,000, plus staff time (10 to 30 development hours) for implementation. The page must be bilingual, as the testimonies should be written in the language in which they were written and not translated. The page must be monitored daily and configured so that comments are not displayed until they are approved.
The second category, positive testimonies - marketing pages, checks all comments and only displays positive testimonials. These may be user-generated and/or solicited testimonials. Some sites provide only a few testimonials or case studies to highlight on their pages, whether in text or video form, and it is more of a marketing element. In general, visitors do not trust the marketing testimonial pages.
In the past, we have posted some of our legal victories on the website, and we may post some case studies or examples of how we have helped members. It would be more of a marketing issue, showing members how we can help them by showing how we have helped others.
The development cost would be composed of salaries each time new testimonies are added. We estimate half an hour (1/2) per intervention. This type of testimony must be translated so that it appears the same on the French and English pages, so we would also have translation costs.
Whatever option we choose, it is my opinion that it would be too difficult and too expensive to manage such a workload on a daily basis. Among other things, we do not have enough staff to do this work properly.
For these reasons, I have decided that we will not proceed with this suggestion at this time.
Respectfully submitted,
Marc Brière
National President