Report of the President - Executive Council

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING:

The ratification process of the tentative agreement, which was held entirely online from August 24 to September 29, finally reached its long-awaited conclusion. UTE members, who went above and beyond to help Canadians during the pandemic, voted overwhelmingly in favour of their new contract.

Once again, I would like to thank all the members of our bargaining team for their excellent work and our Locals and Executive Council officers for their dedication. They have mobilized our members. Of course, I would like to thank our members again for their continued support of their bargaining team throughout this difficult round of negotiations.

To that effect, a video was released on October 1st to publicly thank our bargaining team, our Locals, the Executive Council and, of course, our members.

On November 5, we issued a message on our website and on our various social media to the effect that the Governor in Council and the Governor General of Canada had given their approval to the agreement reached between the UTE/PSAC and the Canada Revenue Agency for a new contract.

On November 13, at a virtual meeting, the leaders of the Public Service Alliance of Canada - Union of Taxation Employees (PSAC/UTE) and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the members of the bargaining teams of both parties proceeded to sign the new collective agreement.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT:

It should be noted that the date of signing, November 13, is the date on which the contract officially comes into effect. All persons who are part of our bargaining unit on that date, i.e. who are employed by CRA and are members of our union, are eligible to receive the one-time lump sum payment (signing bonus) in the amount of $400.00. CRA has 180 days from the date of signing of the collective agreement to make this payment.

In addition, CRA also has 180 days:

• to apply the new rates of pay;
• to make retroactive payments for the period commencing on the expiry date of the previous contract; and
• to pay the lump sum payment in the amount of $500.00 as compensation for the extension of the implementation period of the Collective Agreement. All of our members are entitled to this amount as well as former members who left their employment with CRA after the expiry date of the last contract.

On November 17, we had our first meeting with managers from the Agency's compensation sector who are responsible for planning and implementing the monetary provisions of our new contract.

Here is a summary of the main points discussed during this meeting:

• Signing of the Collective Agreement: November 13, 2020 ;
• Updating of the permanent line (implementation of the new rates of pay): the expected date is December 23, 2020 ;
• Lump sum payment of $400: expected date is December 23, 2020;
• Lump sum payment of $500 (this payment is the responsibility of the Department of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)): payment scheduled for March/April 2021 ;
• Retroactive payments (under the responsibility of PSPC): scheduled for March/April 2021 ;
• Manual Adjustments: payments are scheduled from April 2021 to May 14, 2021 ;
• 180-day implementation deadline: May 14, 2021.

In addition, here is some information regarding : (1) Retroactive payments for retired employees and former UTE members; (2) Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contributions; (3) Disability insurance.

Retroactive payment for retired employees and former UTE members

• All former UTE members who retired after November 1, 2016 are eligible to receive retroactive payments under this new collective agreement.
• All former employees must keep CRA informed of address changes and direct deposit information. If the direct deposit information on file is incorrect, a cheque will be mailed to the address on file.
• The Public Service Pension Centre is responsible for pension adjustments based on revised salaries and does not report to the CRA Compensation Client Service Centre. Pension updates are not included in the 180-day implementation period.
• If a former retired UTE member subsequently accepted a term position in another federal department, any manual adjustments required to pay CRA retroactivity may become the responsibility of the new department. These individuals should contact the last department where they worked to obtain updates on their accounts or if they do not receive their retroactivity by the end of the 180-day implementation period.

Appendix E of the new collective agreement regarding the Memorandum of Understanding with respect to Implementation includes retroactivity for salary for employees who retired or resigned, pay in lieu of severance pay, cash vacation leave, etc., and this retroactivity is payable within 180 days. In the past, employees who ceased working were not part of the 180 days as they were no longer members of the bargaining unit.

Salary components traditionally included in the calculation of retroactivity will continue to be included in the calculation and administration of the retroactive payment and will maintain their pensionable status where applicable. Salary components included in historical salary records and therefore included in the retroactivity calculation include the following:

• Rate of pay of the substantive level (substantive position)
• Promotions
• Lateral moves
• Acting Pay
• Pay for extra services or overtime
• Overtime hours worked
• Maternity leave allowance
• Parental leave allowance
• Cash payment for vacation and overtime
• Severance pay
• Compensation for the month of death
• Transition Support Measure
• Eligible allowances and additional salary according to the collective agreement

Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contributions

• The Income Tax Act (ITA) does not allow employees to transfer retroactive payments directly to an RRSP as is the case for severance pay, but employees can follow the process of requesting a waiver of withholding tax from CRA like any other taxpayer who receives a large payment.
• Tax waivers, if approved by CRA, allow the employer to reduce the amount of tax withheld on a large payment based on the employee's commitment to make an RRSP contribution in the appropriate taxation year.
• However, the implementation of the waivers in Phoenix is very complex and time- consuming. Often, the only practical way to make them work is to allow the system to deduct the tax as usual and refund it after the fact in the payroll system. However, this is not allowed under the Income Tax Act.
• Due to the complexity of processing tax waivers, CRA has avoided offering this option for previous pay revisions. It is CRA's understanding from discussing this issue with PSPC that tax exemptions are very rare outside of CRA.

Disability Insurance Adjustments

• Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) has confirmed that it will coordinate with the insurers to have PSPC send salary reports to Sun Life (or Industrial Alliance) for all Public Service employees with ratified agreements.
• PSPC is responsible for sending the salary report to the insurers. No action has been taken by CRA.
• This work is outside the 180-day implementation period. It is the responsibility of Sun Life or Industrial Alliance to establish eligibility and to make adjustments to disability benefits.

We will continue to keep you informed as soon as we obtain additional information.

PAYMENT OF THE PHOENIX DAMAGES COMPENSATION:

We have also discussed this issue with managers in the Agency’s compensation sector. According to CRA, PSPC is responsible for issuing the payments and it is anticipated that they will not be issued until the spring of 2021.

It is not yet known whether the amounts will be taxable or not. We will continue to follow up on this file on a regular basis.

ADMINISTRATIVE CONVERSION OF TERM EMPLOYEES:

The Memorandum of Understanding that was signed on August 18 between UTE and the CRA officially came into force on November 1, 2020. Henceforth, the conversion of a term employee's temporary appointment to a permanent appointment will be made after three (3) years of continuous service.

Over the past several weeks, CRA Regional Directors of Human Resources have been working with local management teams to validate and finalize the list of term employees with at least three years of continuous cumulative service who meet the minimum staffing requirements. These employees were then converted from term to permanent status. Eligible employees were to be notified in writing by November 1, 2020 and all offers of permanent employment will be made and processed by March 31, 2021.

All term employees who were eligible for administrative conversion on November 1, 2020 have had their contracts extended until they receive their formal offer of permanent employment.

MEETINGS WITH THE CRA:

I have had several meetings with senior executives of the Agency concerning various issues and current topics such as:

• CRA's business resumption plan;
• the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the "Administrative Conversion of Term Employees";
• the implementation of the new collective agreement;
• the printing of the collective agreement;
• the interpretation and implementation of the new clause 60.01 of the Collective Agreement;
• access to "INFOZONE" by the National Office.

In addition, I have an agreement with the Chief Human Resources Officer to have monthly telephone conversations with him to discuss certain concerns or important issues. Our first meeting was held on November 12 and the main topic of discussion was temporary lateral moves to a lower classification level. I reiterated that UTE does not intend to accept any changes to the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding already in place on this matter.

STAFFING AT THE NATIONAL OFFICE:

The work to fill the position of Administrative Assistant to the National President following the retirement of Sister Sylvie Bastien continues.

We have reviewed the resumes of those who have applied. From this list, only two (2) candidates met the selection criteria.

The two (2) individuals came to the National Office to take the tests evaluating their ability to communicate in writing in both official languages. Unfortunately, neither of them met the minimum required standards.

We are now back to square one and discussions are taking place at the National Office to find other potential candidates.

PRESIDENTS’ CONFERENCE, CONVENTION COMMITTEES AND TRIENNIAL CONVENTION:

The year 2021 will be a year full of important events for our organization. Normally, these meetings would be held in person. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing unabated with a second major wave of infections and a potentially worse third wave expected during the winter of 2021, and the lack of a clear timeline for the large-scale distribution of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine across Canada, it is clear that we need to consider an alternative solution in order to hold these events.

The solution being considered is to hold these meetings virtually.

On November 5, the President of the PSAC invited the National Board of Directors to a meeting to attend a presentation given by Encore Canada. This company specializes in the management and execution of large-scale virtual events.

We are seriously exploring the possibility of using their services to manage and put in place a virtual Presidents' Conference in March 2021. This conference will be a great opportunity for us to test the quality of their product. We will be able to use this experience to refine our preparation for the Convention Committees in April 2021 and our next Triennial National Convention in July 2021.

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

Our website is working well, and updates are occurring in a timely fashion. In October we created a video to thank our members, our locals, the UTE executive and the bargaining team for their support and hard work during the bargaining process. The video was well received. We produced our first edition of the year of Union News in October (delivered in November). In November we worked on December’s edition which will include the 2021-2022 UTE calendar.

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. Since working from home we have started to use more of our Microsoft 365 cloud services (Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint).

Microsoft Teams usage is increasing, we have 3 regions, 13 locals and 6 committees using Teams. Since September 2020 we made 137,900 minutes of Teams audio calls.

We renewed our Symantec anti-virus subscription for another year. We purchased a Zoom Webinar subscription which will be used to host virtual AGMs for the locals. We extended the warranty of an internal Dell server.

DONATIONS / SPONSORSHIPS:

NON-UTE UNION EVENTS:

GRIEVANCES:

SEPTEMBER 1ST TO NOVEMBER 30TH, 2020

During Q3, twenty (20) new grievances were received in the National office. Seventeen (17) grievances were presented. Seventeen (17) final level replies were received from CRA, thirteen (13) were denied and four (4) were partially allowed. Eighteen (18) grievances were closed; six (6) were settled, eight (8) were not adjudicable, one (1) mediation declined, two (2) were withdrawn and one (1) MOS was signed.

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-four (124) 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)

No requests for ITPRs were received in the National Office this quarter.

CRA POLICY GRIEVANCES

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

UNFAIR LABOUR PRACTICE COMPLAINT (ULP Complaint)

During the last quarter, we reported that we were 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. I am pleased to report that we were successful before the Board A copy of the decision was sent to all Locals and Executive Council.

PRESIDENT’S ITINERARY

Acronyms

AEU – Alliance Employees Union
CBA – Collective Bargaining Agreement CRA – Canada Revenue Agency
FBEC – Federal Black Employee Caucus
HRB – Human Resources Branch NBoD – National Board of Directors
PSAC – Public Service Alliance of Canada UTE – Union of Taxation Employees

MEMBERSHIP:

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Brière
National President