The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
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AC Director’s Report from the Board of Directors Meeting - November 15, 2017

The following report covers the open session discussion of the Board of Directors meeting held on the 15 NOV 2017.

The President provided a verbal report covering the topic of the Canadian Labour Congress Lobby Day scheduled for the 6th of February 2018. Details of the event will be forthcoming as we move forward.

The President briefed on the current situation with the troubled Phoenix Pay System. The President explained the change in our position from “building the relationship” to replace the system and have public service employees build the replacement system instead of contract help.  The President further explained that the system would need new hardware and licensing. Based on her feedback from public service employees that the system could be replaced for “under a million” dollars using public service workers.

I spoke to this issue, reporting on a discussion of AC representatives on an email sent to the membership regarding the cancellation of the Institute’s contract with Marriott (Delta) properties.

In addition a briefing note was submitted and read:

BRIEFING NOTE

TO:                  Board of Directors                              DATE: October 15th, 2017

FROM:            Advisory Council                                FILE NO:       

FOR ACTION

SUBJECT:     The Advisory Council reviewed and discussed the Issue of ‘Marriott Corporate Rate’ agreement.

ISSUE

The issue of the Hotel Accommodations change was raised at the AC. The issue was discussed and representatives decided to move a motion that a Marriott Corporate rate be considered.

BACKGROUND

The AC representatives discussed the email sent to the membership explaining the fact that Delta hotels cancelled their contract with the Institute. The reason that the Delta, now Marriott, had not honoured their commitments to the Legacy fund. The members discussed that;

  1. We had a relationship with Marriott Hotels that was very beneficial to our activists, in relation to their work to support our members;
  2. Marriott Hotels are prominent throughout Canada;
  3. the lack of a single hotel provider has made it more difficult for our activist to secure centralized accommodation, particularly in the NCR;

CONSIDERATIONS

The representatives moved a motion that; “the AC recommends that PIPSC negotiates a new corporate rate with Marriott Hotels by January 1st, 2018.”

RECOMMENDATION

Therefore due to the above motion the Advisory Council recommends;

“that PIPSC negotiates a new corporate rate with Marriott Hotels by January 1st, 2018.”

I recommend this proposal and support the continued practice of staying at Marriot Hotels that has been developed throughout the years.

Further I motion the following:

I move that the Board of Directors approve the recommendation to establish a corporate rate with the Marriot Hotel chain not later than January 1st, 2018.

            The Board of Directors discussed the issue and an amendment was put forward as follows:

Moved and seconded that the Institute investigates a corporate rate with the Marriott Hotel chain.

The amendment passed as written above.

Government Update

The issue I didn’t raise was as a result of the Phoenix pay system our members are facing a great deal of stress. Stewards will be provided a kit. Its missing tools and recognition of the work they are doing on behalf of our members. The President stated “I have been using the Phoenix issue to justify steward liberation due to the increased workload.”

Bargaining Update

The Institute had our post mortem to produce their lists of issues and concerns and compiled into a document during our strategic bargaining committee. This is a first, we need to document and do our lessons learned.

Bring in a steering committee to establishing the agenda and determine what the committee should be focused on. I took a long list of issues to Treasury Board, delayed signing dates and valid mandates.

NR Group has now been signed. We are trying to negotiate a bigger monetary settlement for our groups by not having their collective agreement implemented.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for the 15th of December 2017.