Minutes of the Workforce Adjustment Committee

In attendance:  Pamela Abbott      Chairperson
                      Bill Blair                Co-Chairperson
                      Hicham Youssfi     TSO Presidents’ Representative
                      Sylvie Lahaie         TC Presidents’ Representative
                      Kent MacDonald    Staff Advisor

1. Review Agenda for the afternoon Joint Committee meeting

The agenda items are:

• Combined Affected Employee and / or Preferred Status list
• PSTAR- BC
• Retention Process – National Guidelines
• WFA Volunteers

  1)   Combined Affected Employee and/or Preferred Status list

There are currently 654 members in affected and/or preferred status. The following is a breakdown per region:

Atlantic                     32 members
Quebec & Montreal    75 members
Ontario                    278 members
Head Office               48 members
Prairies                   147 members
Pacific                      74 members

The RVP’s will be sent a copy of the Regional list.  (Note: The National list is broken down per region and not per office as in the past.  Thus, the regional breakdown is per the employer’s regions.)

 2)   PSTAR – BC

UTE will be seeking an update as to the status and number of members who have opted not to return to the BC Government.

The employer will update the union on any ongoing WFA situations or initiatives.

3)   Retention Process – National Guidelines

UTE will be discussing Retention based on the following:

• Have the national guidelines been distributed? If so, to whom?
• Discussion on when to run a process, and
• Knowing outcome of process prior to starting.

4)  WFA Volunteers

UTE would like a discussion, as it seems the field is somewhat confused on the issues of members volunteering when involved in a WFA situation.

2. WFA Presentation at Presidents’ Conference

The Committee discussed the presentation made at the September 2012 Presidents’ Conference. All Committee members stated that any comments made to them on the presentation were positive. The Committee discussed why all members of the Committee were not informed of the presentation nor were they asked for input or to be involved in the presentation. Sister Abbott explained that Brother MacDonald and herself were asked by Brother Campbell to develop and facilitate a WFA workshop based on the areas he thought where necessary to cover. Sister Abbott acknowledged that the other members of the Committee should be informed in advance whenever any presentation/workshops on WFA are being done and will ensure all members of the Committee will be informed of such presentations/workshops in the future.

3. WFA  Email to Locals

Brother MacDonald provided the Committee with a document on the answers to the questions asked of the Locals in the July 20th email/memo regarding the establishment of Local WFA Committees and their meetings. Sister Abbott is to use this information in her discussions with RVP’s to ensure we are all working to support our affected/preferred status members.

4. WFA  Minutes of the UTE Website

Sister Lahaie brought up the issue that the Minutes section of the WFA Committee webpage does not clearly distinguish between the UTE Committee minutes and the Joint Union Management minutes. Brother MacDonald will speak with Sister Duncan to work to get this corrected. (Note: At the writing of these minutes, Sister Duncan has already corrected the issue.)