Andria Cullen
An informal meeting was held March 22nd between Khaled Messaoudi and me to discuss the upcoming UMAC meeting for the following day. During that meeting Khaled informed me CRA Management stated that the agenda items that I tabled were not within the scope of the mandate of UMAC. I disagreed, I stated that these are National issues, they are broad in scope and speak to the effectiveness of the mandate of lack thereof. I also advised that both the President’s Representative, Sharon Cowie and our Technical Advisor Shirin Amiri would be joining the meeting from UTE. Khaled advised me that they would have to be present as observers to which I agreed.
During the meeting of the UMAC, I brought forward the issues advised in the previous committee report.
Discussions were had regarding UMA 102 and 103 and the employer is still pushing for an online version 103. I expressed concerns regarding virtual presentations, that the purpose of the course was to facilitate better relationships between management and the unions and that it is instrumental to have those meetings in person. AFS representative (HQ region) stated that it would be ideal to have 103 in person, but the hybrid model has to be considered. The AFS (BC/Yukon region) stated that the locals should have the ultimate say in how the training takes place. Management would like to move to a hybrid model citing workplace of the future where teams are spread out across the country. She stated that it’s been two years since the workshop has been shelved and there is a growing need for the workshop to be re-introduced.
The Director re-sent the course materials for another review and to get further feedback and we will confirm the final decision at the next meeting.
UMA 102 – the new negotiations course being offered by Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) it was unavailable for this meeting and were advised that the pilot course would be provided as soon as it was available. 11 people registered for the pilot so far, it is a 1-hour course self-paced course (we have received the pilot of the course and will be reviewing this as a committee shortly to provide feedback for the next meeting).
6400 time was discussed, the Director of LR stated that the CRA has been dealing with these issues for years. They stated that the time code is applied differently across the country. That managers have different perspectives on the leave depending on the relationship with the Locals. He advised that the best approach was to continue educating in the field about the purpose of union’s business leave time code, providing advice and guidance and encouraging managers to build relationships with union representatives. He also stated that UMA 103 is the appropriate tool for building those relationships but not the only option. He stated that he was committed to bringing this forward with another management level.
Vaccine Mandate Roll-out was discussed and the Director of Labour Relations acknowledge that the roll-out had not been handled appropriately. He agreed that consultation at the National level could have been more meaningful however management had no flexibilities regarding the implementation of the policy. AFS (BC/Yukon region) asked about the policy review and the Director of Labour Relations stated that the policy would be reviewed in May for CRA and that he could keep the unions informed of any update (To date none have been provided).
The Director of Labour Relations advised that the vaccine attestation verification process would involve 4000 CRA employees, randomly chosen, who have attested to being fully vaccinated would start at the end of March and beginning of April 2022. Employees were notified in early April 2022 and would be completed by managers in the least intrusive way possible. There will also be two other phases: Administrative LWOP process and ta review of decisions on requests for accommodations. These reviews will be completed later ate and more information will be provided to those selected.
Union consultation re: changes at local and regional levels. UTE brought forward their concerns regarding the implementation of local and regional changes both in Ontario region and Western region. UTE stated that by removing the local presidents from consultation discussions and keeping confidential the upcoming changes to the locals and regions until implementation the local unions are unable to assist members, identify concerns or provide feedback. AFS (BC/Yukon region) stated that the unions don’t have any answers to the questions of its membership regarding the reorg, new teams and reporting structure. The Director of Labour Relations stated that they were committed to bringing this forward with another management level.
Org charts not being provided to locals in a timely manner were brought forward and advised that new employees are not being informed of who is the local union representatives.
Next meeting was suggested for the end of June.
Respectfully submitted,
Andria Cullen
Chair of the Committee