As we plunge headlong into 2020 and a new decade, now is a good time to reflect on the work accomplished last year on your behalf by your national consultation team.
A number of bilateral meetings were held with the various sectors, including Health Services (HS), Information Management Services (IMS) and Technical Services and Facilities (ST&I). During these meetings, various issues were discussed before being brought to the national table within the National Labor Management Committee (NLMC). There have been four NLMC meetings this year. These meetings took place on January 17, June 13, September 19 and December 19, 2019.
From 2012 to January 2019, CSC maintained the freeze on the Employment Policy for a fixed period, which had an effect of insecurity for many of our members. Your national consultation team had discussions related to how CSC was going to apply the implementation of this policy. CSC assured us, in the first months of the year, that our members who could be appointed to indeterminate positions would be appointed quickly. We remain vigilant at the end of the year, however, because there would have been external signage without even having posted certain positions internally where members might have had the chance to apply to the positions.
Certain permanent points are also exchanged during these meetings. The news related to legislative changes, the budget and operational issues is shared with us and we have had the opportunity to comment on several aspects of these points. We are also fortunate to be able to analyze information related to grievances and harassment complaints that affect our members in the past several years.
For the past few years, the Phoenix pay system and service has regularly occupied our discussions and CSC informs us of the little progress in case resolution and sharing with us its limited strategies to reduce the problems associated with this system. CSC actions are limited because PSPC is the department responsible for the system. However, we were informed that the organization is participating in the implementation of the Scheduling and Deployment System (SDS) for several of our members, which could decrease or even avoid errors in the current pay of employees. The challenge of correcting errors that have occurred since the implementation of Phoenix remains, and CSC is unable to inform us of the deadlines for resolving everything. The implementation of the compensation agreement for members affected by Phoenix is underway and the members should have received there annual vacation credits provided for in the agreement. There are also many grievances related to Phoenix. It is essential that if you have filed a grievance related to a problem relating to Phoenix and that it is resolved, notify your delegate or employment relation officer (ERO) to update your grievance file. We should get more information on SDS and the evolution of the new payroll solution as of January 2020.
Well-being in the workplace is an issue, CSC and PIPSC are working together to promote a sense of well-being for employees at work, which is why we are present on several associated committees. Whether in connection with occupational health and safety, where we sit on the National Joint Occupational Health and Safety (NJOHS), the Advisory Committee on Community Safety and Operations (ACCSO), or in connection with several other aspects of our work where we have representatives on national committees in connection with the National Advisory Committee on Ethics (NACE), National Learning & Developement Committee (NL&D), the Meeting of the Steering Committee for Workplace Mental Health Injuries, the National Joint Anti-Harassment Committee (NJAHAC) and the National EAP & CISM. We strive to represent our members and their interests in compliance with laws and different rules. The point that often arises from these committee discussions is the lack of professionals to perform the work in several organizational workplaces, which causes stress, burnout and other discomforts among some of our members.
Organizational changes such as Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP), Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) or those resulting from Bill C-83 are changes relating to legal files and are now part of the routine discussions with the employer. These topics our discussed in each of the bilateral meetings of national governance, but also at the level of the regional meetings. Regional matters that cannot be settled at this level are forwarded to the national level for discussion and decision-making.
You are encouraged to consult the Newsletters of the various governance bodies for more details or to request information from your regional PIPSC representatives at CSC, here is the list of members of your national consultation team.
Isabelle Chabot, NU Atlantic Region Representative
Isabelle Mercier, PS Quebec Region Representative
Cindy Gagnon, NU Ontario Region Representative
Rob Scott, CS Prairies Region Representative
Phil Johnson, NU Pacific Region Representative
Kieth Laing, CS IMS Meeting Representative
Ken Pearce, CS Team Communications Officer
Gary Desbiens, NU Team Vice-President
On behalf of the consulting team, I invite you to question your local and regional representatives to let us know more about your concerns related to your work at CSC.
In solidarity
Richard Doyle, NU
President of the PIPSC-CSC National Consultation Team