President's Report - Executive Council

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS (AGMs):

The next round of Annual General Meetings (AGMs) will start in October this year and run until May 2025. Once again, it will be up to the Locals to decide how the next AGMs will be held - either face-to-face, virtually or in a hybrid format.

I can assure you, however, that no matter how the AGMs are held, I will spare no effort to attend as many as possible. There is nothing more beneficial for a National President than to hear directly from members and to gather their views on the various issues affecting them. And I know I can count on the support of the First and Second National Vice-Presidents to attend AGMs too. It is very important for the National Office to be represented at local AGMs. I ask Locals in the same region to coordinate their AGMs with their Regional Vice-President to optimize the use of National Office staff and resources, especially when meetings are held in person.

MEETINGS WITH THE CRA CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER AND OTHER SENIOR EXECUTIVES:

I continue to have frequent discussions with the Agency's Chief Human Resources Officer regarding important issues and current topics.

I have also had discussions with other senior executives of the Agency regarding current issues and topics such as:

• Reduction/proratization of performance leave for our MG group members due to the strike;
• Canadian carbon rebate program for small businesses.

INCREASE OF ON-SITE PRESENCE AND WORK ARRANGEMENT AGREEMENT (WAA):

On July 25, we published an update to our May 16 message concerning the arbitrary and unilateral decision by the Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency to comply with Treasury Board's directive to increase to an average of three days per week the requirement to be present on site.

In this message, we urged members who require greater flexibility in their current work arrangements, better suited to their needs, to submit a new or modified work arrangement agreement to their supervisor for approval and, in the event of refusal, to file a grievance against the refusal.

In addition, we informed members that as soon as the announcement of the increased on-site presence was made, we noticed that UTE was not included in the policy grievance and Unfair Labour Practice Complaint filed by the PSAC with the federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board, in respect of its other bargaining units. As a result, we immediately asked the PSAC to file a policy grievance and a similar Unfair Labour Practice Complaint on our behalf, which they did.

On August 29, we sent another message to members informing them that some CRA managers had begun asking employees to submit a new work arrangement agreement. Once again, UTE strongly encouraged its members who require greater flexibility in their current work arrangements to submit a new work arrangement agreement better suited to their needs to their respective supervisors for approval and, in the event of refusal, to file a grievance against the refusal. We also reiterated that local union representatives are available to help them file their grievances.

Finally, on August 30, we published a message to share the wallpaper that Brother Miguel Meneses Rinaldi, president of our Moncton local, had the great initiative of creating, a magnificent virtual background with the hashtag #RemoteWorks.

Many of our members want to express their opposition to the government's unilateral requirement for a greater on-site presence and point out that working remotely has worked and continues to work.

We have therefore asked them to use this background for their virtual meetings. However, if their manager asks them to remove it, members must respect the employer representative's instructions, while requiring that the request be made in writing. We then advise members to contact one of their local representatives to file a grievance.

TELEWORK CAMPAIGN AND LABOUR DAY PARADES:

On August 29, we issued a message to members that Labour Day parades were being organized across the country. We mentioned that the Union of Taxation Employees, along with our colleagues in other Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Components and Directly Chartered Locals, would be participating in these parades, and would strive to have a strong visible presence.

In this message, we also mentioned that, in addition to celebrating the labour movement in general and recognizing our achievements on behalf of our members, our goal this year is to make known our opposition to the government's unilateral demand for increased on-site presence, and to mobilize our members in this regard.

We have urged all UTE members to participate in these marches, and to solicit their family members, neighbors and friends to join our campaign.

Each PSAC region issued a communiqué outlining the schedule of events and identifying the various ways in which members could participate in these marches.

We concluded the message by mentioning that a strong presence is needed to show the government that our members are ready to fight and will not remain passive in the face of employers' unilateral and arbitrary imposition of changes to our terms and conditions of employment.

TELEWORK CAMPAIGN (UPCOMING EVENTS):

The next planned event is a demonstration near Ottawa's Delta Hotel during the September 2024 Presidents' Conference to continue to denounce the federal government's unilateral decision to increase the on-site presence requirement as of September 9, 2024. Other events will be organized over the coming weeks and months. We encourage all UTE Locals to organize spontaneous events locally with their members to continue to put pressure on the CRA and to make its senior officials understand that this decision is simply not acceptable.

UTE ACTION PLAN FOR THE CURRENT CYCLE:

As set out in the Action Plan adopted by the UTE Executive Council at its Retreat earlier this year, a meeting is scheduled between the Council and the PSAC National President, Sister Sharon Desousa, and the National Executive Vice-President (NEVP), Brother Alex Silas, at the September 2024 Executive Council meeting, to discuss the relationship between UTE and the PSAC, the important issues facing us, and the priorities of the Alliance's new leadership at the start of this new cycle.

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

Our website is working well, and updates are ongoing.  We have noticed that some locals are sharing event photos on social media but are not forwarding the photos to the national office.

Whenever you have an event, we ask that you send your best photos (5-20) to Susan Duncan duncans@ute-sei.org, in their original size/format, for inclusion on the national website. When you do, please let us know the event name, when it occurred, and any other details including who may be in the photos.

INFORMATION/TECHNOLOGY

All IT systems have been running well. Regular software maintenance of computers, servers and network was performed.

We purchased 3 new computers for the RVPs that were scheduled to receive new computers in 2024.

We are moving to Bell Mobility for the mobile phones of RVPs and National Office mobile phone users.

DONATIONS

NON-UTE EVENTS

GRIEVANCE REPORT

JUNE 1st, 2024 to AUGUST 31st, 2024

During Q3, sixty-seven (67) new grievances were received in the National office. Thirty-seven (37) grievances were presented.

Thirty-six (36) final level replies were received from CRA, thirty (30) were denied, and one (1) was settled, six (5) were closed.

1. Status Quo: Awaiting documents from member.
2. Status Quo: No new updates, this grievance is still held in abeyance pending claim for damages arising from Phoenix pay issues.
3. Status Quo: Reply held in abeyance with the agreement of the grievor pending replies to 2 related grievances where the grievor represents himself however further background research is required.
4. Status Quo: One file is still waiting on member to provide requested documentation, including ATIP response.  One file held in abeyance pending completion of job description review, and for the other grievances filed by one member, following the MoS signed on April 12, 2023, ongoing discussions with the terms that not yet all been implemented.

There are presently two hundred sixty-one (261) grievances in the National Office inventory which have not yet been presented at the Final Level dealing with a variety of issues.

POLICY GRIEVANCES

A policy grievance challenging the Federal 3-day In-Office Mandate was filed in mid-May. It was presented and is now awaiting the Employer’s final reply before being sent to the PSAC for referral to adjudication.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

There were no new classification grievances filed during this period.

INDEPENDENT THIRD-PARTY REVIEWS (ITPRs)

There were no new ITPR grievances filed during this period.

CRA DIRECTIVES (FORMERLY NJC) GRIEVANCES

No CRA Directives formerly NJC grievances were filed during this period.

MEMBERSHIP REPORT

 July 2024

National President
ACTIVITY REPORT – SEPTEMBER 2024
Marc Brière

Acronyms

AEU – Alliance Employees Union
AGM – Annual General Meeting
NBoD – National Board of Directors
PSAC – Public Service Alliance of Canada

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Brière
National President