Agenda / Item Discussion
Introduction and Opening remarks.
Everyone was welcomed to the NLMCC meeting by Employee Chair Doug Marshall and a round table of introductions was provided for all attendees.
Update on the Psychological Health and Well Being Initiative
- Peter Boehm and Diane Jacovella attended the Psychological Health and Well Being town hall that was held.
- Lillian Chatterlees has been announced as the new champion of Health and Wellness for the department.
- Action plans are still being developed for the department which are making process however still needs more discussion. The department wants to make sure that the standards are above and beyond good for department.
- Improvements are being looked at by Heather Dipenta and her team.
- Important training events coming up.
- 250 manager training provided
- 108 Consular staff training provided
- The team is going to focus on website and access to tools
- Department has access to LifeSpeak which has been accessed about 500 times / per month. Question raised on what subjects were pertinent as accessed
- Part of the work is to improve internal monitoring of:
- What services are being utilized?
- Getting a better idea of what is needed for psychological health and wellness
- Bargaining Agents noted that there is an interest to find out diagnostic of core causes of wellbeing help being sought. Indications seem to point to work load, work life balance, HR processes, Phoenix as stressors.
- Question of how will formal consultations with Bargaining Agents on this issue happen?
- Department is working on mapping psychological risks and what are the biggest stressors that affect employees.
- They are taking a step back in the action plan to make sure that the plan is right and not rushed. Management is emphasizing that GAC is a very different department with sensitivity of LES staff which needs to be built into plan as well.
- This is an important element in the HOM course as there is an accountability of the HOM for Health and Wellbeing.
- PMA’s have this as a priority and it is now a category for Misson Evaluations/checks.
- Question of what happens next. Is there a commitment from senior management to address the sources and if the analysis provides better clarity, the department is committed to working on addressing the sources.
- Highlight of the Joint Learning plan was given by Bargaining Agents which is a joint training program between the Employer and the Bargaining agents.
- Also, communications in fall to members for updates to plan.
- Suggestion that this be a standing item for the LMCC
Update on Phoenix
- Bargaining Agents were thanked by management for their help with dealing with Phoenix issues and solutions.
- Stats provided to committee:
- Cases are growing, there are 15000 more cases that are longer than 30 days –overall backlog growing.
- 1000 members with five or more cases pending.
- Trying to get service from the centre to get better traction.
- People are actually getting paid so there are less emergency claims for salary.
- There is manual entries for PARs and less pay actions needed.
- Good news is that department is reinvesting dollars into fixing the issue for training more people to help fix Phoenix for the department with a centralized PAR course of action.
- Bargaining Agent (CAPE) suggested the key take away from a PSPC LMCC is that Phoenix can handle current entries but not historical so we need to be proactive in informing members that they need to be actively encouraged to enter overtime and other information into Phoenix otherwise the issues will only get worse.
- Question raised of number of pay advisors being hired with the answer of eight people been hired.
- Question of the amount of money in the investment of savings with the money left with the department. Senior management indicated 1.1 Million / year for 2 years are being reinvested in department for Phoenix.
- This has been requested to be a standing item on LMCC agenda.
Update from the Occupational Health and Safety Policy committee
- An update from the Departmental OSH Policy committee provided which offered key points on Mandate of the committee.
- Context provided that Canadian Labour Code part 2 OSH Committees or OSH person (less than 19 people in building) are required by law
- Over 100 missions have an OSH committee
- 40 missions have an OSH representative.
- Mandate provides for :
- Strategies for handling OSH issues, raising the visibility of OSH with good OSH policies.
- Policy committee reached out to local committees and received a response rate of 50% with over 70% coverage.
Update on the Ad hoc Working Group on Ambient Air Quality at Missions
- An update on the Ad Hoc Working group on ambient air quality at Missions provided to committee.
- Work to date provided:
- Best practices of other foreign ministries-other foreign ministries were reached out to for information on what they are doing in this area. Review of responses received will be shared among working group members to create list of recommendations.
- Other best practices – Contacts with other organizations are being considered and reviewed responses will also be shared.
- Social networking using a GC Connex account.
- Indoor air quality (IAQ) program launched in cities with a high PM 2.5 level.
- Health Canada Public Service Occupation Health Program overseas developed an informational handout for federal employees and dependants being posted.
- Overseas posting medical assessments admin guidelines provided at preposting medical assessment of CBS
- Spirometry report commissioned by Health Canada
- Collaborating with Health Canada on workshops to offer to staff a “medical planning and health awareness for a posting abroad” workshop.
- There is also a management action plan being developed.
Memorandum of Agreement in Respect to Scientific Integrity
- PIPSC provided update to committee re Memorandum of Agreement in Respect to Scientific Integrity
- CAPE also made note of new article in a collective agreement about professional integrity.
Round Table and Closing Remarks.
- PIPSC brought up that a request had been given to Labour Relations re Contracting out and Consultants with the Department. The request included:
- How many contractors are employed by the department.
- Length of contracts
- That there is an appearance of employer/employee relationships with contractors.
- Doug Marshall announced that this was his last LMCC and everyone wished him luck in the future.
- Meeting was adjourned