Report of the President - Executive Council

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING:

After the success of the email campaign, for which the slogan was: “Enough praise, now let’s bargain!” and the discussions between PSAC officials and those of the Treasury Board and my conversations with the Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the Agency finally agreed, on July 14, to return to the bargaining table.

On July 25, after one and a half week of intense negotiations, our bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with the CRA for a new five (5) year work contract, i.e. from November 1, 2016 to October 31, 2021. This is a great victory for our members, who outdid themselves to help Canadians during the pandemic. Our team was able to obtain average salary increases of 2.07% and better working conditions, all without having made any concession.

On August 13, we made the ratification kit available on our website for our members and our locals. It is also possible to download the document in PDF format.

Given the COVID-19 situation and the restrictions issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada, the ratification process for the tentative agreement was held entirely online, from August 24 to September 29. At time of writing, we were able to see an excellent participation rate by our members in the various webinar sessions. Also, the feedback from the members was very positive. Among other things, the members of our bargaining team were able to adapt to the new reality by making excellent presentations and by adequately answering the questions asked by the participants.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of our bargaining team for their dedication and hard work throughout this long and difficult round of negotiations. You did a great job!

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UTE AND THE CRA REGARDING THE PHOENIX DAMAGES COMPENSATION:

On July 24, I had the pleasure of informing our members that the Union of Taxation Employees – Public Service Alliance of Canada (UTE-PSAC) and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had signed an agreement that should implement, in the same way and within the same time frame, the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) pertaining to the damages caused by the Phoenix pay system, reached by the Treasury Board of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

The PSAC successfully negotiated Phoenix damages compensation that is substantially better than the agreement reached by the employer with other federal bargaining agents. Last year, the PSAC rejected the government’s offer – five bankable days off. We had decried that offer, protesting that higher wage earners would be at an advantage over those earning lower wages. The current agreement provides eligible PSAC members with a fair, equitable lump sum payment of up to $2,500.

We have made available to our members the document prepared by the PSAC that details the compensation agreement and the expansion of the claims process for reimbursable expenses and significant losses caused by Phoenix.

CHANGE TO THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONVERSION OF TERM EMPLOYEES:

In parallel with the successful conclusion of the negotiations of our new collective agreement, we took advantage of that leverage for reaching an historic agreement for our union and its members. Indeed, for almost 20 years now, we have been trying to get the administrative conversion of term employees done after three (3) years of continuous service, as it is the case in the rest of the federal public service. Thanks to this agreement, it has finally become a reality!

What is important to understand is that the only change made to the CRA’s Procedures for Staffing (Staffing Program) is related to the administrative conversion of term employees. Specifically, the number of years of continuous service required for a term employee to become permanent will drop from five (5) to three (3) years. All other aspects of term employee management and the CRA’s Staffing Program will remain the same.

The Memorandum of Agreement was signed on August 18, 2010 and stipulates that effective November 1, 2020, the conversion of a term employee's temporary appointment to a permanent appointment will be made after three (3) years of continuous service if the employee's current position is represented by our union. The full text of the Memorandum of Agreement was posted on our website on August 21 to make it accessible to all our members and a video explaining the terms of the agreement was also released the same day.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS (AGMs):

Several AGMs of our Locals are scheduled for this fall. With the resurgence of cases of infection related to COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed by public health authorities, we must consider an alternative solution: holding these meetings virtually. At the time of writing, we are still working actively to find satisfactory solutions to allow Locals to hold their AGMs and to be able to conduct votes, including secret ballots in local executive officer elections. It is essential that the platform(s) chosen be able to guarantee us the confidentiality of votes related to the elections. In addition, the election committee must be able to verify that the people who will be voting are indeed members in good standing of the Local in question.

MEETINGS WITH THE CRA:

I had a number of phone conversations with senior officials of the Agency regarding various issues and current topics such as:

• forced deployment of members to the Call Centres;
• the CRA’s Business Resumption Plan;
• end of contract for term employees;
• resumption of the grievance procedure;
• exceptions to staffing recourse;
• grievance digitization project;
• Canada Emergency Benefits Validation and Identity Protection Service.

In addition, I have spoken several times with the Commissioner of the Agency as well as the Chief Human Resources Officer via telephone conversations or videoconferences regarding the status of our negotiations and the change to the administrative conversion of term employees.

RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION:

In the wake of recent events in the United States and Canada, in particular the tragic deaths of Black people George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Regis Korchinski-Paquet and Aboriginal people Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi during police interventions, many of our members are feeling pain, grief and anger and are rightly demanding change in order to stem the appalling scourges of racism, systemic bias and discrimination. All of this profoundly affects our communities here in Canada and around the world.

Over the past few months, I have had numerous discussions with senior CRA officials as well as with the Chair of our Equal Opportunities Committee, Sister Linda Koenders, regarding this extremely sensitive issue.

I have decided to give the Committee the mandate to consult and dialogue with our members to gather information and propose concrete actions to fight racism, systemic bias and discrimination at the CRA and within our union. As soon as the Committee reports its initial findings to me, I intend to share them with the Executive Council for discussion.

Discussions on this subject are also taking place at meetings of the PSAC National Board of Directors on which I sit.

STAFFING AT THE NATIONAL OFFICE:

As Sister Sylvie Bastien will be retiring soon, we have initiated a selection process for the position of Administrative Assistant to the National President to replace her.

The position was officially posted on our website on September 2nd. We have also sent an email to all PSAC employees and other Components and another email to all our Locals asking them to inform their members. Finally, the position was advertised in some media and on websites specializing in job postings. Please note that the deadline to apply is September 25. 

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

Our website is working well, and updates are occurring in a timely fashion. In August we created a video to inform our members about the change to the administrative conversion of term employees. The video was well received. 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

All IT systems have been running well. Regular software maintenance of internal computers, servers and network was performed. All the employees have been working from home since the closure of the PSAC building. We purchased headsets for employees and RVPs to provide a better Teams meeting experience. We also purchased mobile scanners for Doug, Shane and Natasha so they can scan documents at their homes.

Microsoft Teams usage is increasing, we have 3 regions, 8 locals and 3 committees using Teams. Between March and August, we had 145 thousand minutes of Teams audio calls.

DONATIONS / SPONSORSHIPS:

Donations/Sponsorships
Dons/Commandites
As of September 10, 2020 / Au 10 septembre 2020

NON-UTE UNION EVENTS:

Non-UTE Union Events
Événements syndicaux autres que ceux du SEI
As of September 10, 2020 / Au 10 septembre 2020

GRIEVANCES:

GRIEVANCE REPORT
March 1st To August 31 st, 2020

As you are aware, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, an agreement was reached to suspend all time limits with respect to the presentation of grievances, the issuance of grievance replies, grievance responses, grievance transmittals, and the scheduling of grievance hearings. With the transition of the business resumption plan, the parties agreed to resume the grievance procedure as of August 2020. Emails have been sent to Executive Council and locals concerning this matter.

We are now engaged in consultations with the agency concerning the digitalization of the grievance procedure and the various grievance forms and we will keep you apprised as matters progressed.

As we were unable to extract the necessary data to complete a grievance report for the last quarter, below you will find a combined report for the last two (2) quarters.

During Q1 & Q2 periods, eight (8) new grievances were received in the National office. Twenty (20) grievances were presented in Q1 and six (6) were presented in Q2. Twenty-two (22) final level replies were received in Q1 and six (6) final level replies in Q2 from CRA. Twenty-seven (27) grievances were closed in Q1 and ten (10) in Q2.

1. Grievance in abeyance pending HRT & WSIAB complaints. The complaints are still active and outside legal counsel has carriage of file. The complaints are currently held in abeyance.
2. These grievances are held in abeyance pending a statutory freeze complaint scheduled for Sept 9 to 12, 2019.
3. Pending tax appeal

There are presently one hundred twenty-one (121) 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

There were no new classification grievances filed during this period.

INDEPENDENT THIRD-PARTY REVIEWS (ITPRs)

There was one (1) new ITPR received in the National Office this quarter. During this quarter, eight (8) ITPR decisions with respect to one selections process were received, with all ITPRs being allowed. Initially, there were fifteen (15) Requestors, but during the course of disclosure, the agency conceded with respect to seven (7) of them and granted appropriate corrective measures. We are still awaiting corrective measures on the remaining eight (8) allowed ITPRs and we have been assured that corrective action will be taken by September 30^th 2020.

CRA POLICY GRIEVANCES

There were no new CRA Policy Grievances received during this period. 

UNFAIR LABOUR PRACTICE COMPLAINT (ULP Complaint)

At the time of the writing of this report, we are before the Federal Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board with respect to a ULP that we had filed during this round of bargaining concerning the employer’s decision to refuse to allow us to post a bargaining update on Union bulletin boards and to direct local representatives in certain offices to remove said updates. The hearing is being held on September 15 & 16, 2020 and we will distribute the decision when received.

PRESIDENT’S ITINERARY

DATE     ACTIVITY              PLACE

MAY

28          Special Executive Council Meeting              Gatineau

JUNE

1            PSAC Component Presidents’ Conference Call                                           Gatineau
2            NBoD Conference Call                                                                                  Gatineau
4            Videoconference with PSAC National President – Conventions                   Gatineau
5            Virtual Cheque Presentation – UTE & Food Banks Canada                         Gatineau
5            Meeting of UTE-PSAC NSCC via Videoconference                                      Gatineau
8-10       Executive Council Meeting via Videoconference                                          Gatineau
9            NBoD Conference Call                                                                                  Gatineau
10          CRA HRB Conference Call – Deployment of members                                Gatineau
12          Follow-up meeting  – Union/Management Consultation                                Gatineau
12          Meeting of UTE-PSAC NSCC via Videoconference                                      Gatineau
16          NBoD Conference Call                                                                                  Gatineau
18          Executive Council Meeting via Videoconference – Deployment of  Members    Gatineau
18          Conference Call with PSAC National President                                            Gatineau
22          PSAC Component Presidents’ Conference Call                                           Gatineau
23          Conference Call with CRA – National Business Resumption Plan               Gatineau
25          Conference Call with CRA – Protocol for reoccupancy of CRA Buildings    Gatineau
26          Conference Call with the CRA Assistant Commissioner, HRB                    Gatineau
29          PSAC Component Presidents’ Conference Call                                           Gatineau
30          NBoD Conference Call                                                                                  Gatineau

JULY

2            Conference Call with the CRA Assistant Commissioner, HRB                    Gatineau
3            Special NBoD meeting (Phoenix damages)                                                Gatineau
10          Special Executive Council Meeting                                                             Gatineau
13          Attending the funeral of Isabella Rovinelli-Jackson                                     London
14          NBoD Conference Call                                                                                Gatineau
15          PSAC SJF Steering Committee Meeting                                                    Gatineau
17          Special NBoD meeting                                                                               Gatineau
20-25     Numerous discussions with our bargaining team and CRA officials regarding
              the negotiations and agreement for the terms                                            Quebec
28          NBoD Conference Call                                                                               Gatineau
29          Meeting of UTE-PSAC NSCC via Videoconference                                   Gatineau

AUGUST

6            Conference Call with the CRA Assistant Commissioner, HRB                  Gatineau
6            Conference Call with the CRA Commissioner                                           Gatineau
10          Videoconference with PSAC – Gilmour Office Reopening                        Gatineau
11          Special NBoD meeting via Videoconference                                             Gatineau
20          Recording of a video at the National Office                                               Ottawa
27          PSAC Holdings Board meeting                                                                 Gatineau             

SEPTEMBER

3            PSAC SJF Steering Committee Meeting                                                   Gatineau
8            PSAC Component Presidents’ Conference Call                                        Gatineau
10          Tour of the UTE National Office (adjustments related to COVID-19)         Ottawa
14          Special Executive Council Meeting                                                            Gatineau
15          NBoD Conference Call                                                                               Gatineau

Acronyms

CRA – Canada Revenue Agency
HRB – Human Resources Branch
NBoD – National Board of Directors
NCR – National Capital Region
NSCC – National Strategy Coordinating Committee
PSAC – Public Service Alliance of Canada
SJF – Social Justice Fund
UTE – Union of Taxation Employees

MEMBERSHIP:

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Brière
National President