Minutes of the National Workforce Adjustment Committee

LOCATION: 233 Gilmour Street, Suite 800, Ottawa

1. Combined Affected Employee List / Preferred Status Report

Management will follow-up on three employees on the Affected Employee list (40, 41, and 42) and get back to the Union.

The Union expressed concern with the timeliness of affected letters when an employee states they do not wish to relocate.

Management replied that the Director, ITSO and the union representative had reached an understanding on this issue. That said, Management will look into this to see if this item has been addressed.

In addition, Management will provide the union with the CCP-ITSO update regarding employee’s status.
 

2. National Updates 

Management stated that:

• WFA Questions & Answers had been published on InfoZone.

• WFA Fact sheets would be shared with UTE for comment with a one week turnaround time. UTE agreed.

• Creation of presentations on options and alternations to managers and employees are underway.  Most regions have given the general WFA sessions to managers.  Management is also working with Training and Learning to establish a method to provide the information, such as webinars as there are many people to train within a short time frame.

• Further to the Commissioner’s message, a portal had been put in place to assist employees and managers in understanding business transformation.

  UTE asked if this was just located on the manager’s site. Management responded that it was available for all CRA employees.

• The Union asked for an updated copy of the Cost Containment Plan initiatives. Management agreed.

3. Deficit Reduction Action Plan

Management stated the Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources Branch recently met with the UTE National President; however, no decision had yet been made regarding 5% and 10% reduction plan.

The Union asked if there had been any additional news on the closure of offices.

Management replied that there was no information available at this time on that item.

The Union also asked about the possibility of alternations as mentioned in the media. Secondly, while they were aware that this information was strictly related to Treasury Board, CRA employees needed to be informed that this did not apply to their situation.

Management stated that no final decisions had been made on this matter; however, it was part of the collective agreement and could be used, if needed. Management agreed that employees needed to be more informed regarding what did and did not apply to them.

4. Budget

Senior Management would meet with UTE once the 2012 Budget was announced to provide an update.

5. British Columbia PSTAR Update

The CRA and the province of British Columbia continued to negotiate the Human Resources Agreement (HRA). Further to the Union’s question, Management did not know if the negotiations would include a two year job guarantee.

6. Retention Process – National Guidelines

The Union stated that there were various retention exercises being conducted in the field; however, they wanted to know if a National Policy would be issued in order to provide consistency in the field.

Management stated that the Directive on Preferred Status, as well as the addendum had been issued last fall.

UTE stated that it did not recall receiving this information and asked Management to research this item and provide a response. Management agreed.

CLOSING REMARKS

Management took the opportunity to thank UTE for their participation in the WFA Planning session. The regions greatly appreciated the Union`s input.

The Union was pleased with the positive response. In addition, they mentioned that the date scheduled for the September 2012 meeting was no longer feasible and UTE would be in contact with Labour Relations regarding alternative dates.