REPORT OF THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
Presented to the 99th Annual General Meeting
The Advisory Council continues its role as a recommending body to the Board of Directors. The Advisory Council mandate from the Institute Bylaws is as follows:
10.4.2 Mandate - The Advisory Council is charged with the responsibility of dealing with matters referred to it by the Board, the Executive Committee, Group Executives, Consultation Teams or a general meeting of the Institute. It shall serve as a forum for an exchange of ideas
and information among Groups and Consultation Teams. Some of the prime functions shall be information sharing on collective bargaining issues, professional concerns, national consultation and policies under consideration. In addition, the Advisory Council shall review PIPSC
Annual Priorities and make recommendations to the Board of Directors prior to the second Board of Directors meeting of the calendar year AGM 2015.
The AC Steering Committee has coordinated a 4 group breakout session for AC delegates to provide Group Presidents and Consultation team Presidents to provide an opportunity to identify “gaps” in the Institute’s support, governance and training for stewards.
The main question that By-laws and regulations don’t address is “Who is responsible for Stewards?”
The By-laws do address specific concerns like term of a steward, or definition of a steward but do not address specific issues like:
- Approval of Stewardship
- What conditions should exist with a member who wishes to become a steward?
- Who is responsible for a steward once approved?
- Renewal/Removal of Stewardship
- Who is responsible for input to Steward removal/renewal?
- Who monitors the status of stewardship? (Institute, Groups, Consultation teams?)
- Support and Training of Stewards
- Who is responsible in the Institute for all Support/Training of stewards? (Health and Safety, Employment Equity, CLC, FTQ, Consultation, other training needs)
- How do we address the needs for external training activities? (Lunch and Learn, Union Events, Campaigns)
- Authority/ Duties of a Steward
- How do we arrive at a union position a steward might face? (Health and Safety Code Interpretation, Trans-Gender Issues, etc.)
- What authority does a steward have when speaking on behalf of our union?
- Recruitment of Stewards
- Who is responsible for steward recruitment?
- How and when do we recruit stewards?
The Advisory Council continues to attempt to capture your ideas. The Advisory Council Steering team collected the input and prepared a summary for the AC delegates in an attempt to provide some guidance and recommendations to the Board of Directors on the long standing and important issue of Stewardship.
The Advisory Council will also be reviewing the Institute Strategic Plan and specifically trying to provide input to the plan. Specifically, the issue of the Institute’s ability to support Health and Safety concerns. Consultation Teams, Groups and individual members need guidance on the union’s position on departmental Health and Safety policy and general enquiries for Health and Safety Code interpretation.
The Institute acknowledges that we have very limited support for stewards, consultation teams and members when it comes to Health and Safety issues. Many external training courses are available, some through the Canadian Labour Congress, others the Canada Safety Council. The Advisory council will be attempting to provide guidance ad identify the gaps in support for our Health and Safety concerns.
The Advisory Council will discuss the current training approach for stewards and members. In an attempt to provide recommendation(s) on whether the approach should be an Institute lead training and support program model, or an external training and support model or a hybrid model of both? These are all good topics to consider for your Advisory Council. I look forward to the future discussions and your input for future meetings.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Glenn Maxwell
Advisory Council Director