Report of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Committee

Well-Being Committee
Report of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Committee
June 2019

Kimberley Koch

The Committee met with the employer on May 3rd. In attendance were myself, Linda Koenders, RVP, NCR, Heather Ford, President’s Representative, and Andrea Holmes, Labour Relation Officer, UTE.

Due to the ongoing lack of consultation, UTE and AFS jointly decided to table all conversation regarding the following until discussions take place at the executive level.

  • EAP Toll Free Number: At the meeting, it appears that management and bargaining agents held different views with respect to the consultations that took place. While management shares the union’s preference for displaying this information more prominently on the Canada.ca website, and proposed options towards that objective, constraints imposed by the Treasury Board of Canada for posting on the website, dictated a location for this information which was less than ideal for the purposes identified by both management and the unions.

  • EAP Orientation Session: The course content has remained essentially the same since the late 1990’s. However, in February 2018, the template of the presentation was updated in alignment with the CRA visual products and branding templates released by the Public Affairs Branch in 2017, which has changed the look and feel of the learning product.

  • EAP and ICR National advisory committees will be combined to include the Well-Being component. This will enhance the realignment of the committee structure with the existing Well-Being program and ensure a more comprehensive approach for briefing bargaining agent partners.

With respect to the last item, we wish to emphasize that the objective of these discussions is to consult you that is not only to update you on the work that has been done but also to provide you with the context in which we operate and obtain your suggestions and feedback on our initiatives. Management remains open to any suggestion on how you would like these discussions to happen (e.g., face to face meetings, conference calls.) Once you are ready to address these topics, please inform Union-Management Relations who will be happy to assist us in organizing these meetings.

Should you have any questions or require any additional information, please feel free to let us know.

Acronyms:

NEAPO: National Employee Assistance Program Office
C-C: Coordinator-counsellor
RA: Referral Agent
ToR: Terms of Reference

Respectfully submitted,

Kimberley Koch
Chair of the Committee