Report of the President - Executive Council

Bob Campbell - Item 6

CRIMINAL iNVESTIGATION pROGRAM Structure in Compliance PROGRAM Branch: We developed a National Grievance strategy because of this initiative.  The Grievances were presented at the fourth level on April 25, 2013. We will continue to keep you updated on any developments.
  
Budget 2013 Fallout:  On April 2, 2013, we received official WFA notifications for 194 UTE members. This is wave one and we expect more jobs to be affected in the fall due to budget 2013.

PSAC "we are all affected" (WAAA) Campaign:  Leadership meetings are underway across the country and we have been informed that UTE has been participating in great numbers to these events.  This is a critical campaign and needs the support of all the leaders at all levels of this organization, and of the union movement as a whole.
 
Meeting with Commissioner:  On March 18, I had my first face-to-face meeting with the new Commissioner of the CRA. The meeting went well, with UTE raising the importance of communications and consultation on all aspects of the CRA. The Commissioner made a commitment to keep the lines open.
   
Collective Bargaining Rally at March Presidents’ Conference:  I would personally like to thank all of the activists from UTE and beyond that rallied with us in front of the CRA headquarters on March 21st.  There was an excellent turn out and we made our point that we are behind our bargaining team and we expect a fair collective agreement.

April 30th Activities. Again, I would like to thank all of the Locals from across the country for the actions taken on April 30th.  This event was left up to the locals as to what activities they would partake in.  There were many creative and different ideas across the country and it shows the commitment and dedication of our leaders. You all should be very proud and please thank your members and executives. In addition, the RVPs and the Alternate RVPs were very involved and this shows that we can motivate our members.
   
Pacific RVP:  I would like to take this time to thank Sister Pamela Abbott for all of her hard work and dedication to the members of UTE and wish her well in her new duties as the Executive Assistant to the PSAC NEVP. It is with great pleasure that I welcome Brother Robert Hume as the new Pacific RVP as of April 29th, I know that the Brother will receive all of the support and assistance from the Locals in his region and the Executive Council  as he steps up to fulfill this position with the untimely departure of Sister Abbott. All necessary changes to UTE Committees as a result of Sister Abbott’s departure have been made with consultation from the Executive Council members involved.

The National Office is proceeding with an election to fill the position of Alternate RVP-Pacific. A call out for nominations closed May 21st.  All intentions are for the election to be completed by June 24, 2013.

CRA’s NEW EMPLOYMENT EQUITY GOVERNANCE MODEL:  The following letter was sent in response to our alarm at the lack of consultation and misinformation put out by CRA in regards to their new employment equity governance model.  I am sure that Sister Johnson will have more to advise in her EO report, as she met with the employer on this issue on May 22nd.

Ms. Grace Hashimoto
Interim Director
Official Languages and Employment Equity Division
Canada Revenue Agency
395 Terminal Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5

Subject: Your Letter dated May 10, 2013

Dear Ms. Hashimoto,

Thank you for your letter addressed to Ms. Robin Johnson dated May 10, 2013.  However, it was disconcerting for our office to read your responses to Ms. Johnson’s concerns.  In the past, your Division has been effective at providing the UTE with frequent updates related to employment equity. Consultations and collaboration were efficiently executed.  Since May 28, 2012, your Division has been lacking in the area of consultation and collaboration for the following reasons:

Point 1

At the meeting of May 28, 2012, your Division stated it would not be considering the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s Maturity Model. In her letter dated April 9, 2013, Ms. Johnson requested to know when your Division chose to utilize of the Maturity Model. Your response dated May 10, 2013 outlined it was presented January 28, 2013 to the Human Resources Committee and subsequently approved by the Agency Management Committee. However, we note a period of approximately four (4) months between the presentation to the Human Resources Committee and your letter dated May 10, 2013. It would have been advantageous for our office to be made aware of the fact your Division was reversing its previous position and adopting the Maturity Model. This would have allowed for consultation and collaboration

Point 2

Our understanding of the Records of Discussion dated May 28, 2012 and November 19, 2012 was not that your new Governance Model would be issued and immediately utilized. We were not consulted nor did we collaborate on this new Model. We note once again that our meeting of May 22, 2013 will be held subsequent to the utilization of the new Model. Despite our scheduling conflicts, we are of the opinion your Division would have issued said Model despite our protests, if same had been communicated in a meeting scheduled prior to May 22, 2013.

Point 3

Your response dated May 10, 2013 fails to address Ms. Johnson’s query. Once again, we note that we were not consulted nor did we collaborate on this new Model.

Point 4

January 15, 2013, our office did receive the proposed Model. However, we note that the communication was not that the Model would be implemented without consultation and collaboration. Rather, the wording utilized was as follows, “If AMC approves the new EE governance model, we will be seeking your thoughts on implementing it” (emphasis added by the author). Your Division has chosen to unilaterally implement the Model without consultation and collaboration. Furthermore, we note that your response dated May 10, 2013 fails to acknowledge that our office was to be contacted on how to implement the Model.

Point 5

We note that your Model could have been amended to include the UTE in the discussions. We trust we will not encounter the same issues with the Terms of Reference as we have encountered with your new Model. We expect to be consulted and to collaborate on the ToR.

In closing, your letter dated May 10, 2013 states in part the following, “...the new employment equity governance model...continues to focus on the need to meet our obligations under the...Act but, importantly, it also formalizes the Agency’s value of diversity...” (emphasis added by the author). Nevertheless, we note that despite your comment of diversity, the Agency still refuses to informally recognize the GLBT group as an equity group. It is interesting to realize that your Division is attempting to streamline and modernize the EE structure without however, considering an avant-garde approach to the GLBT group.
  
The UTE is extremely disappointed in your Division and trusts that in the immediate future, the latter will consider revising its method of consulting and collaborating.  Notwithstanding this, please be advised that I will be raising this matter at the June 2013 National Union Management Consultation Committee meeting.

 

In Solidarity,

Robert Campbell
National President
Union of Taxation Employees

cc​Equal Opportunities Committee, Union of Taxation Employees
​Mr. Marc Brière, 1st National Vice-President, Union of Taxation Employees
​Mr. Denis Lalancette, 2nd National Vice-President, Union of Taxation Employees
​Mr. Bill Jones, Canada Revenue Agency
​Ms. Diane Lorenzato, Canada Revenue Agency

Meetings with CRA:  We had several meetings with the CRA during this period on issues including Personal Security Screening, Conflict of Interest and Code of Conduct, and the award of the contract on Records Storage Management. 

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

We are now running on our new web server, with its updated databases structures (MS-SQL) and new search engine.  The new hardware replaced our out of warrantee hardware, and the new version of the programming software is much easier to update than the previous version.

We have created versions of our registration system to handle the Mental Health Regional Conferences in Toronto and Calgary.

We have also made some changes to the website including adding highlights to the top and some subtle colour changes to our main pages.

We also created our first short animation “Storage Wars” on the topic of outsourcing taxpayer information.  In three weeks, we received over 1000 views in English and 270 views in French.  We received some negative comments, but we also had a lot of likes and shares on Facebook.

We are currently up to date with the website.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

All IT systems have been running well. Regular software maintenance of internal computers and servers was performed. We renewed the software maintenance on our network management software which is used to monitor our network and servers on the UTE network. There will be an update coming shortly (June/July timeframe) to our Microsoft Exchange Online email service. The update will provide the latest features of Microsoft’s Exchange server 2013. Notifications will be sent to all users once the date has been finalized. Our hosted anti-virus solution from Symantec has been functioning very well. This solution allows UTE to protect and manage the anti-virus software on RVP’s laptops as well as protect all internal computers and servers.

NON UTE EVENTS: May 21, 2013

DONATIONS/SPONSORSHIPS:

GRIEVANCES

Since our last Executive Council meeting, twenty-nine (29) grievances, other than classification, were received at the National Office.  Four (4) of these were filed by members challenging the Criminal Investigation Program (CIP) reorganization.

During the same period, forty-four (44) grievances were presented dealing with a variety of issues.  In this quarter, we received six (6) grievance replies from CRA which consisted of five (5) being denied and or dismissed and one (1) being withdrawn. 

1. Grievance awaiting a hearing date from Redress Section.  A hearing date has now been secured, but CRA initially took the position that the matter was not grievable.
2. Grievor was originally identified by the CRA as being an employee of Shared Services Canada at time of grievance.  Employee has been confirmed as an SSC employee and a hearing was recently held with respect to that grievance.
3. MOAs have now been concluded for seven of these grievances, but files will not be closed until the terms of the settlements are given effect.  The final grievance deals with BC PSTAR employees’ entitlement to severance upon retirement.  As this has far reaching implications, discussions are ongoing.
4. MOAs are in the process of being implemented and grievances will be withdrawn upon implementation.
5. MOAs are being implemented for three of these grievances.  The remaining twenty are related to the reorganization of Criminal Investigations Program.

There are presently thirty-one (31) grievances in the National Office inventory which have not yet been presented at the Final Level. 

As noted in previous reports, the number of outstanding adjudications and the delays in same remain a concern for our office.  Discussions continue to be held with the PSAC, but to date, no resolution has been found.  The major difficulty being experienced is the large volume of adjudications in inventory at the PSAC and the lack of Grievance and Adjudication Officers on strength to deal with them. Additionally, the Public Service Labour Relations Board is attempting to deal with its large case inventory, but they too lack sufficient human resources to deal with them.

POLICY GRIEVANCE

During this period, there was no policy grievances filed.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

There was no new classification grievances received during this quarter.

ACS-SP CLASSIFICATION CONVERSION GRIEVANCES

To date, we have provided representation for forty-three (43) of these grievances and await the employer’s decision with respect to one (1) of these grievances.  As noted in the chart below, all but one (1) (SP0632)  have been presented.  Before we can present this grievance, we are waiting for the employer’s final re-write of the work description. 

INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY REVIEWS (ITPRs)

During this quarter, five new ITPRs were received in the National Office concerning staffing, two of which were subsequently withdrawn and closed.

There are currently four ITPRs in our inventory requiring representation by the National Office.

CRA POLICY REVIEW GRIEVANCES

Currently there is only one CRA Policy Grievance in our inventory.

May 24, 2013

President’s Itinerary
March 2013 - June 2013

Respectfully submitted,

Bob Campbell
National President