Meeting with TSDMB
( Taxpayer Services Debt Management Branch )
January 27th, 2014
Participants:
UTE Staffing Committee
Sabri Khayat Regional Vice-President, Montréal / UTE Staffing Committee Chair
Adam Jackson Regional Vice-President, Ontario East and North Region / UTE Staffing Committee Co-Chair
Madonna Gardiner President, Local 90000, St-John’s Tax Centre
Chris DiLiberatore Vice-President, Local 80003, Halifax
Shane O’Brien UTE Senior Labour Relations Officer – Technical Advisor
HRB
Leanne Given Human Resources Corporate Project Consultant, Workplace Relations and Compensation
TSDMB
Michael Snaauw Assistant Commissioner
Ted Gallivan Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Rick Denis DG, Technology and Business Intelligence
Donna May DG, Taxpayer Services
Kevin McKenzie DG, Debt Management Compliance
Tony Marconi Director of Planning and Strategies, Collections
Gordon Majcher DG, Branch Management Services
Counters
The 2nd phase of counters is starting.
Splitters
Currently, splitters are used for quality assurance, but the employer would like to introduce splitters for performance purposes.
Presently, the employer indicates it tests by using certified listeners, but is now considering having Team Leaders listen to the calls. The employer claims that the feedback that it is receiving from managers, team leaders and employees indicates that all are interested in using splitters for performance appraisal purposes.
UTE was adamant that it was, and still is, opposed to this initiative.
The employer agreed that it would not proceed without further consultation with UTE.
Agent ID
Each agent has a unique ID. The pilot was conducted in Business Enquiries to see if there are any adverse effects in terms of service time, quality, etc. There were no adverse effects identified and as such, the standard greeting will continue to be used.
Annual Hours of Operation Matrix and Memorandum
The Taxpayer Services Directorate (TSD) issues a jointly signed memorandum (DG and UTE President) each year to all Call Centres, to ensure consistency in the application of the Collective Agreement across the network.
The standard memorandum has now been signed, by our National President Brother Bob Campbell and Ms. Donna M. May Director General / Taxpayer Services Directorate.
The memorandum should be issued shortly to the field.
This matter, however, does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Staffing Committee.
Audit Evaluation and Risk Branch (AERB) Survey on Accuracy
TSDMB was asked by the Commissioner to obtain an independent assessment of the accuracy of telephone responses.
Calls were conducted using a standardized set of questions.
The Audit report is expected to be issued by the end of February.
This report was requested by Commissioner Treusch to respond to assessments conducted by other third parties (e.g. CFIB, Howe Institute, etc.).
TSDMB will consult with us with respect to the report when it is finalized.
SP-0465 Work Description
The revised work description SP-0465 (Taxpayer Services Agent) is with classification and consultation has taken place with the UTE National Office.
Employer Compliance Audit (ECA) Renewal Status Report
This is the second year of implementation.
The CRA is strategically working to educate taxpayers about the necessity for compliance and move into direct compliance mode with taxpayers should the circumstances dictate. Offices are afforded the discretion with respect to ECA Renewal and some offices have ECA reporting to Directors while others use a different management structure.
Regions are identifying some issues with respect to efficiencies.Most of the analysis and planning will be finalized this year.
Implementation will be finalized next year.
The employer indicated that it had received no negative feedback from the Regions to date.
Non-Filer Renewal – Status Report
The employer provided us with a briefing document.
The CRA reported that there may be some duties changes. There may also be some new positions created as a result of this initiative.
Analysis should be completed by the end of this fiscal year and implementation in the next fiscal year.
There could likely be a change in the responsibility of some positions.
As a result, work descriptions may need to be revised.The employer has now decided that it needs to segregate duties so that the decision makers are separate from the employees taking the actions. Work will be moving from local to regional teams and will include an Analyst, a Screener, an Assigner and Agents who execute the actions.
The employer does not know yet if it will be one generic work description or separate work descriptions.
2014 will be a transition year, with analysis and planning to be done.
2015 is planned to be the year for implementation.Quebec will be piloting this new model. Prairies Region has volunteered to be a pilot for the system-driven workload.
Work may diminish in the TCs as a result of this restructuring.