Sabri Khayat

The Committee met in Ottawa on February 12, 2014.

The Committee finalized the work on the UMA implementation plan (framework), which will be sent to all regions in mid-April 2014, along with a request to implement it and send us their feedback.

The Committee will send the regions a reminder that:

The regions are responsible for implementing and maintaining the UMA. We feel that this responsibility falls primarily to CRA Assistant Commissioners and the regional union representatives.

The basic UMA training is required for all new managers and new union representatives.

To go along with the implementation, we are trying to ensure that the UMA philosophy will be signed again, with the Commissioner and both union presidents, in April 2014.

As for the tool developed by the Quebec region (an on-line questionnaire) to assess the quality of union-management relations, we cannot currently use it at the national level because of the cost. We are in the process of reviewing another computer application.

We would like to remind the Executive Council about the importance of ensuring that each new manager takes the basic UMA training. To ensure the longevity of that training, union involvement is essential. The National Committee suggests the minimum ratio of one (1) union representative for five (5) managers.

Regarding Conflict Resolution, the Committee met in Ottawa on February 13, 2014:

• The 2012-2013 annual report of the National Conflict Resolution Office (NCRO) was sent to you on February 23, 2014, by the Committee Chair.
• That report provides a summary of the activities conducted during the year on the Conflict Resolution Program (CRP), Independent Third-Party Reviews (ITPRs) and the Union-Management Approach (UMA).
• When reading through that report, you will note – as the Committee did – that there is a considerable increase in the use of Conflict Resolutions, and we feel that this is partly due to better visibility of the program.
• However, the Committee is hoping that the publishing of the annual report, which was delayed because of a long and tedious approval process, will be expedited in the future.
• We would also like to remind the Executive Council that it was the UTE that successfully requested that the basic course on Conflict Resolution be mandatory and given jointly with the union.
• With that reminder, we want to direct the attention of our RVPs to the importance of ensuring, each in his/her region, that they have the required number of union trainers.

The Committee’s next meeting will be on November 18 and 19, 2014.   

Respectfully submitted,
Sabri Khayat