VFS 200 René-Lévesque west Sub-Group – Minutes- May 12, 2020

Date:

2020-05-12

Time:

4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Location:

Online – Platform: Zoom

#

Name

Role

Present

Absent

1

Alexandre Martel

President

x

2

Alexander Thomas

Acting Vice-President

x

3

Sophie Laporte

Treasurer

x

4

Inga Chiriliuc

Secretary

x

5

Kabeya Kankolongo

Member-at-Large

x

6

Richard Martin

Member-at-Large

x

7

Luigi Salituri

Member-at-Large

x

List of topics to be discussed

1. Up-to-date union information – Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings are virtual. Contact information is up to date for Alexandre Martel, Sophie Laporte, Inga Chiriliuc and Richard Martin.
   • Office phone
   • Cell phone
   • Email addresses
   • Sophie and Alex T: Home Addresses only (no PIPSC)
   • Kabeya: Gmail
   • Luigi: PIPSC (to be submitted)

            For the next meetings, Alexandre Martel will send out invitations to the

            personal email addresses.

2. Annual General Meeting (AGM) and union activities.
   • Postponed – Union activities are on hold until further notice.
3. Welcoming newcomers to the Illicit Income Review Program:
   • Done by email – Email sent to members
4. Topics discussed with management remotely since COVID-19
   • Targeted cases – Work continues on priority cases, Alexandre Martel has the list. According to Richard Martin, on the contrary, all case are priority cases (to be continued)          
   • Using personal property – Use of personal computers (to be continued)
   • Employment Expense Forms – Revenu Québec has modified the criteria to make employment expenses more flexible (to be continued)
   • Compressed workweek – CED is the only directorate where compressed workweeks have been cancelled
   • Income Averaging – No new requests received
     • Request to use up vacation to avoid pay-up – Payment made on September 30 for the period ending March 31
     • Electronic signatures accepted / email
   • Overtime on the first weekend for CERB – Maximum of 4 hrs allowed for CED
5. Topics discussed with the Director:
   • Certificate in investigations (Certificat en enquêtes et renseignements) of the Hautes études commerciales (HEC) – discussed with the director (to follow up)
   • Distance English learning (opportunity) – Training courses not updated
   • Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) 2019 – No regional breakdown (to follow up)
     • Data by department or region for Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)
     • Actions to be taken
   • Employment Equity (Staffing – MG5) – To be discussed with Director (to follow up)
     • Report as of March 31, 2019 not available.
     • Difference with CPME2.
     •  
6. Issues discussed with the group:
   • Phoenix Leave – The missing day will be added in July
   • Suspension of time limits for grievances – Consensus on suspension
   • Ethics done – One of the training is eligible as well as some courses
   •  
7. Other issues raised by members or related to new tasks:
   • Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) – n/a
   • Canada Emergency Student Benefit  (CESB) – n/a
   • Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) – n/a
   • Pre-validation – n/a
8. Things to be discussed with Management:
   • Follow-up with DM:
     • Search policy under review – Sharepoint – to follow
   • Follow-up with deputy director:
     • Team reduction – to follow up
     • Return of legal counsels – to follow up
     • Meeting with LD or his replacement for internal CRA training (interviews, whistle-blowing, etc.) – to follow up
   • Follow-up with PM Manager:
     • Versalys – to follow up
     • Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) – to follow up
   • Back to the office
     • Unknown date – to follow up
     • Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) – to follow up
     • Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) concerns for the first employees (social distancing) – Alexandre Thomas working on the OHS plan for the return to the office (to follow up).
     • Public transportation (risks, schedule, car/taxi) – to follow up
     • Permanent changes re Telework – to follow up
   • IT
     • Optimize remote connections – Ringtail cloud option
     • Reason: speed and sharing of bandwidth, videos on network – Information should be provided to employees on how to improve remote connection
     • Physical: cable, 2.4G VS 5G network, router location, WiFi Extension, etc. – to follow up
     • Use of survey communications software (BBM Messenger) – to follow up
   • Kudos to Management:
     • My GC Payroll highly appreciated by members
     • Addresses the training plan (email from SL on soft skills to be written)

Miscellaneous

1. The impact of code 6990 on credit accumulation
2. Ergonomics
3. Telework
4. The Ringtail cloud option
5. Procedures for returning to the office during the pandemic