Regional Manager's Report

ATLANTIC REGIONAL MANAGER’S REPORT

76^th Atlantic Regional Council

On behalf of the Atlantic Regional Office, I am pleased to present my report to the 76^th Atlantic Regional Council which highlights the significant activities and priorities of the Regional Office over the past year.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES WITH THE REGION

Training

Once again this year, significant training was conducted throughout the Region. Two Basic Steward Sessions were delivered as well as Constituent Body Training. This year Barry Hebért (now ERO NCR) and John Hanrahan (ERO Edmonton) assisted us with the Regional Training School. The School was a great success and we were happy to be the first Region in Canada to deliver the new PIPSC Leadership Training which was extremely well received. 

Halifax Regional Office

With Barry Hebért’s transfer to the NCR Office in December of 2018, a lot has happened since then. We hired a new ERO in January, Mr. Enrico Di Frusio, who was a labour representative with the Canadian Media Guild (CMG). After approximately two months of employment, Mr. Di Frusio resigned his position to resume working with the CMG. A new staffing process was launched and interviews were held in mid-April. At the time of writing this report, the successful applicant has yet to be identified.  

Representation

Significant Cases & Trends

Miramichi Pay Centre/Phoenix – Over the past year, we continue to hear from members who are frustrated with their ongoing pay issues. It has been more than three years since the government introduced the failed phoenix pay system. While the Ottawa NCR office continues to support members who want support from PIPSCs on getting help on their pay issue, we have also have been putting pressure on Departments in our region to offer more compensation related support in-house. Many Departments have started to re-establish Compensation positions and we have found that the more serious cases can be escalated through these points of contact in the Pay Liaison Units. DFO, Service Canada, Veterans Affairs, and DND are some examples of where we are able to refer specific cases to a Departmental Contact person. At CRA, we continue to coordinate pay related cases through our own PIPSC contact Phil Choo, who has been successful in getting issues resolved.

Violence in the Workplace – We continue to see a growing number of Violence in the Workplace Investigations as employees file complaints under the Canada Labour Code, Part II legislation. As mentioned before, the process involved is different than harassment or disciplinary investigations and therefore it is important that members seek the support of their steward and ERO. Departments continue to hire a Competent Person from Standing Offer Lists as the investigator to conduct their reviews. New federal legislation has received royal assent that will expand the Canada Labour Code, Part II. The expansion of the current wording will be from just preventing accidents and injuries to include prevention of harassment and violence and psychological injuries and illness. We are still waiting to hear when the new legislation will come into effect as well as if that might change how current harassment complaints are handled.

Return to Work/Duty to Accommodate – On a regular basis we are called upon to assist with Duty to Accommodate, and Return to Work cases. The facts and details are usually quite specific to the member at hand however the process we follow is usually quite similar. These cases are usually driven by the medical information that would identify a member’s medical limitations. Once the Employer is made aware, we then seek to ensure a proper Return to Work or Accommodation plan is put in place. In most cases, we are able to successfully support the member in having their accommodation needs met. There have been a few cases that we had to file grievances in order to either get the Employer to implement an accommodation plan and/or have them properly compensate members where a failed accommodation plan negatively impacted the health of our members. Unfortunately, there was one case where a member was terminated for medical incapacity which has resulted in a failure to accommodate grievance which is ongoing.

Reliability Status – Over the past year we were working on a case where the Employer suspended a member’s reliability status pending a criminal investigation. A grievance was filed and many months later the reliability status was reinstated after the criminal charges were stayed. PIPSC raised a lot of valid concerns on how this matter was handled and the impact it had on our member.  I am happy to report this matter was resolved to the mutual benefit of the parties.

Discipline – There have been a number of cases involving members who have been disciplined by the Employer because of alleged misconduct. Some of these cases of misconduct involved insubordination, harassment, inappropriate conduct in the workplace, misuse of government computer. We have been successful in some cases in getting the Employer to reduce the amount of the sanction so that it is more in keeping with the principles of progressive discipline. Also, we were successful in negotiating a medical retirement for a member who was facing a lengthy disciplinary sanction.

New Brunswick Classification Issues – The past year was a successful year in resolving some long standing classification issues. A new ENG-04 pay scale was established that resulted in an 8% pay increase for 21 members. As well, we were successfully able to get the ARCH 3 pay scale moved to the ENG-05 scale which recognizes the level of effort and complexity of this work. A new NB Advisory Group meeting was held in January 2019 and another meeting is being scheduled for June. Significant work was done by a PIPSC pay analyst in the NCR who put together a spreadsheet of the NB collective agreements and conducted an analysis of the different clauses and wording. This should prove helpful for the next round of bargaining, which is likely to begin in the fall.

New Brunswick – Policy Changes, Consultation, Other – Over the past year, the Government of New Brunswick started to revise its policies with respect to Duty to Accommodate, Disability Management, and Substance Use.  Significant changes were contemplated with respect to how the employer would manage accommodations, returns to work, and substance use concerns.  Our office provided support through both attendance at round-table information and consultation meetings in Fredericton and, in co-ordination with NB Group Stewards including Sheila Maclean, through the provision of feedback to the employer with respect to Policy and Guideline Content.

We continue to have positive consultation meetings at the Provincial and Departmental levels, but regret the departures of Luc Serois (Executive Director, Employee Relations), Wendy Donovan (HR Consultant) and Ben Wolthers (Negotiator and Co-Chair of the Provincial UMCC).

Performance Management – We continue to hear from a number of members with concerns related to their Performance Management Agreements. Many times the issues are related to poorly established performance objectives, failed communications during the review period, and unrealistic expectations from supervisors and managers. Usually the implementation of an employer imposed “action plan” has resulted in a grievance being filed. PIPSC is paying close attention to situations where the mangers have imposed negative comments or measures related to “competencies” where culpable issues would normally be addressed through the disciplinary process. This has become an important issue in light of the recent win by PIPSC at the FPSLR&EB concerning PMA’s and assessing competencies.

National Consultations – It is also worth noting ERO’s from the Atlantic Regional Office participate in National Union/Management Consultations at Veteran Affairs as well as Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Both of these consultations sessions occur on a bi-annual basis.

CLOSING

Enjoy the 76^th Atlantic Regional Council and we look forward to our collective work with the Executive, Stewards, and Members during the upcoming year.

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Hartigan

Manager, Atlantic Region