Report of the President - Executive Council

Marc Brière – Item 6

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING:

Last June, the bargaining teams shared their respective lists of demands. They are available on the UTE and PSAC websites. The team bargained from July 3 to 5 and from September 11 to 13. There was some progress during the discussions between the parties, but nothing really significant so far.

We asked all the Locals to distribute the “My Contract, My Voice” poster to their members along with a message from our bargaining team. That activity took place on Tuesday, September 11.

A video was also released on September 11. In it, our Second National Vice-President, Brother Adam Jackson, our negotiator, Brother Morgan Gay, and I are discussing the key issues in this round of bargaining and explaining to the members about the importance of wholeheartedly supporting their bargaining team. I also asked our members to put the “My Contract, My Voice” poster in a prominent spot at their workplace so that the employer’s representatives can see how much the members stand behind their team.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING WITH UTE EMPLOYEES:

On September 7, we signed an agreement in principle with the Alliance Employee Union (AEU), Unit V, for renewing the contract of the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) employees that they represent. The last contract expired on March 18, 2018. If the agreement in principle is ratified, the contract will be in effect from March 19, 2018 to March 18, 2021. The ratification vote by UTE employees will take place on Tuesday, September 25, and the results of the vote will be announced the same day.

PROBLEMS WITH THE PHOENIX PAY SYSTEM:

Unfortunately, some of our members are still experiencing various problems related to their pay due to the failures of the Phoenix system, despite a steady decline in the number of cases to be processed. Small consolation, but there are far fewer problematic cases with the Phoenix pay system at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) than in the other federal departments where pay comes under Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). The vast majority of the more complex cases seem to be resolved when one of our Regional Vice-Presidents gets involved in the matter. We are receiving increasingly fewer cases nationally.

We are continuing to encourage the members to speak to their supervisor about their situation, but also to inform one of their local representatives in order to get the assistance they need. We are also continuing to remind the locals to respect the memorandum of understanding with the CRA regarding pay problems.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REOPENER CLAUSE OF THE LAST COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT FOR UTE MEMBERS FURTHER TO THE DECISION BY THE BINDING CONCILIATION BOARD:

Further to the decision on March 14, 2018, by the Binding Conciliation Board regarding the reopener clause of our last collective agreement, the CRA was required to make retroactive payments to our members within 150 days of that decision.

My executive assistant, Brother Daniel Camara, and I held conference calls with employer representatives every two (2) weeks to regularly follow up on this important issue and to ensure that the CRA would honour its commitment. I am pleased to confirm that the employer, despite a few minor problems, has complied with our agreement. This compares very favourably to the situation experienced by our brothers and sisters who are Treasury Board employees, where the same deadline was unable to be met.

THE “CAS CAN DO IT” CAMPAIGN:

For the past two and a half years, a number of our members have been having pay problems because of the Phoenix pay system.

The UTE firmly believes that there is a better way to pay CRA employees, through its own Corporate Administrative System (CAS).

For almost 20 years, the CRA has been partly using the CAS for payroll administration, with no major complications, and paying its 40,000 employees accurately and on time. The “offloading” of 40,000 employees, and two collective agreements, would reduce the burden on the Phoenix system for the rest of the public service.

This CAS system was created by SAP (system analysis and program development), a 46-year-old company that successfully pays the staff of large multinationals like Nike and Walmart. Improvements to the internal pay system (CAS) would enable the CRA to pay its employees directly.

Introducing that change would require federal legislation authorizing the CRA to pay its own employees.

Over the summer months, we asked our members and their families to sign “CAS can do it!” cards, which will be brought to the office of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, requesting that his government give CRA the human and financial resources necessary to improve the CAS system and use it to pay its employees directly.

Thanks to the hard work of our Locals, the campaign went very well and seemed to be a resounding success. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our Local representatives and Executive Council officers for their incredible involvement throughout the campaign. Of course, I also want to thank the UTE Political Action Committee for designing this great campaign. At the time of writing these lines, the UTE National Office has already received around 9,000 signed cards!!! And we expect to receive thousands more in the coming days.

At the Presidents’ Conference on Friday, September 28, 2018, attendees will march together to deliver the signed cards in person to Prime Minister Trudeau’s office, to send him a clear message that we want his government to respect our members and respond to our demands.

AGMs:

The next round of Annual General Meetings (AGMs) will begin in October 2018. We will make every effort to ensure that at least one of the UTE National Officers can attend the various AGMs, since it is very important for the National Office to be represented at Local AGMs.

Nothing is more beneficial to us than listening to members firsthand and hearing their views on the different issues affecting them. This is why I also encourage Locals to organize visits to the different CRA offices along with their Regional Vice-President and a National Officer, to get to know the settings our members are working in and to meet people who don’t necessarily attend their AGMs. These visits should generally be held alongside the AGMs, to keep expenses at an acceptable level.

Lastly, I am asking those Locals that are located in the same region to coordinate their AGMs so we can optimize the use of National Office staff and resources.

MEETINGS WITH CRA:

I have had meetings and telephone conversations with Agency senior managers regarding various current issues and topics, such as:

• Implementation of the UTE collective agreement (reopening provision);
• Temporary lateral moves (TLM) to lower level positions;
• Renewal of temporary incentive packages for compensation advisors;
• Response times to access to information requests.

DISCUSSION WITH OFFICE OF THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL REVENUE:

I have continued my discussions with the office of the Minister of National Revenue, the Honourable Diane Lebouthilier, on the following topics:

• The “CAS Can Do It” campaign;
• Return of in-person counter services at CRA;
• Proposal for a single income tax return in the province of Quebec to be administered by the Agence du revenu du Québec (ARQ).

POLITICAL ACTION:

In recent months, the NDP, the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois have each promised that, if their party forms the next federal government in the fall of 2019, they will propose a single income tax return in the province of Quebec. Administration of this single form would be handled by the Agence du revenu du Québec.

This proposal has forced us to take a position on the issue. On May 17, 2018, we issued a press release expressing our complete disagreement with this idea. We have also decided to become more involved in the public debate surrounding this issue.

For example, during the by-election on June 18 in the riding of Chicoutimi-Le-Fjord, we organized demonstrations at the Chicoutimi Tax Services Office (TSO) and at the Jonquière Tax Centre (TC) in order to make our members aware of the potential impact of this proposal if it were to become a reality and about the position of the different federal political parties regarding this very important issue. It would endanger more than 1,500 well-paying jobs in the Saguenay Lac Saint-Jean region alone and would have a disastrous effect on the communities.

We asked our members living in the riding of Chicoutimi-Le-Fjord to vote on Monday, June 18, and support the candidate of a party that was committed to protecting their jobs. In the days leading up to the election, I gave a live interview to the Radio-Canada radio station in Chicoutimi, to the local newspaper “Le Quotidien” and to a reporter from the Journal de Montréal.

Brother André Michaud, Locals’ Representative on the UTE Political Action Committee, and Brother Jérôme Martel, Regional Vice-President (RVP) for the Quebec Region, accompanied me on that assignment. Although we were unable to have enough of an influence to get the candidate of our choice elected, we still had an impact on the voting.

I would like to thank Brothers Michaud and Martel for their assistance as well as the representatives of the Jonquière and Chicoutimi locals for their involvement and all their efforts. All the federal political parties are now aware of our position and know that we intend to keep being actively involved regarding this issue during the next federal election campaign.

MEDIA RELATIONS:

I gave some interviews to some of the media on a number of topics, including one to iPolitics about our “CAS Can Do It” campaign.

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

Our website is working well.  Updates are occurring in a timely fashion.  We have created registration forms for the regional EO conferences and the national health and safety conference.  We created the original version of the My Contract, My Voice poster and created a video with speeches from Marc Brière, Morgan Gay and Adam Jackson.  The video was very well received by members. 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

All IT systems have been running well. Regular software maintenance of internal computers, servers and network was performed.

DONATIONS / SPONSORSHIPS:

Donations/Sponsorships
Dons/Commandites

As of September 10, 2018 / Au 10 septembre 2018

NON-UTE UNION EVENTS:

GRIEVANCES:

GRIEVANCE REPORT
MAY 26^th to SEPTEMBER 12^th, 2018

Since our last Executive Council meeting, the National Office received thirty-one (31) grievances, other than classification.

During the same period, twenty-three (22) grievances were presented. During this quarter, five (5) grievances were withdrawn. In addition to grievances withdrawn, there were also received twenty-two (22 replies from CRA, with eight (8) being allowed and the remaining 14 denied.

There are presently sixty-nine (69) grievances in the National Office inventory which have not yet been presented at the Final Level dealing with a variety of issues.

1. Grievance held in abeyance at request of PSAC pending judicial review of WSIB appeal. Judicial review is scheduled for March 2018. Discussions have recently been held by PSAC President and the CRA Commissioner in an effort to settle this matter. No decision has been rendered to date.
2. Grievance was awaiting a decision from the National Health & Safety Policy Committee before proceeding with grievance. Decision recently received and grievance will proceed.
3. Grievances are being held in abeyance at the grievor’s request pending a CHRC complaint.
4. Two grievances are held in abeyance at the request of grievor and legal counsel pending the grievor’s criminal trial.
5. Waiting implementation of MOA.
6. Waiting appointment of classification committee
7. These grievances were presented in late March 2018 and the agency has requested and we have approved and extension for reply. Decisions are expected shortly.

POLICY GRIEVANCE

There were no new policy grievances filed during this period.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

There were no new classification grievances filed during this period.

INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY REVIEWS (ITPRs)

During this quarter, the National Office did not present any ITPRs. However, 3 decisions were received PR’s that were heard in previous quarters. One (1) ITPR was allowed and two (2) ITPR’s were denied. Two ITPR’s that were referred by our office on an application for judicial review by the Federal Court from the last quarter were dismissed by the Federal Court.

Two (2) new ITPR’s were received in the National Office this quarter. One ITPR was subsequently withdrawn by the grievor and closed. The other ITPR has yet to be scheduled for hearing. There are currently three (3) ITPRs outstanding where the National is required to provide representation

CRA POLICY GRIEVANCES

Currently there are no new CRA Policy Grievances in our inventory.  There is one (1) grievance that has been referred to the joint committee but to date has not been scheduled for hearing.  

PRESIDENT’S ITINERARY

DATE             ACTIVITY                                                                                         PLACE

MAY

22                    Site visit of the Montreal TSO                                                        Montreal
23                    Montreal Local 10008 AGM                                                           Montreal
24                    Laval Local 10028 AGM                                                                Laval
25                    Conference Call with Executive Committee                                  Ottawa
27 – 31           Visit in Winnipeg for the 2020 UTE Convention                             Winnipeg

JUNE

1                      Meeting with management of PAB**                                            Ottawa
4 – 6               Executive Council Meeting                                                            Ottawa
7                      Meeting with NUMCC***                                                               Ottawa
8 - 9                Membership Appreciation Day - Winnipeg Locals                         Winnipeg
12                    Meeting with the journalist from “Le Journal de Montréal”, Christopher Nardi            Ottawa
13 - 15            Political Action – By-election - Chicoutimi-Le Fjord’s riding            Chicoutimi
18                    Component Presidents’ Meeting                                                   Ottawa
19 – 22           PSAC NBoD Meeting****                                                                Ottawa
28                    Conference call with CRA for implementation of the Collective Agreement               Ottawa
28                    Meeting with NSCC*****                                                                 Ottawa

JULY

6                      Meeting with NSCC*****                                                                 Ottawa
9                      Negotiation with AEU****** Unit V                                                 Ottawa
10                    Meeting with the President of the AFS Sub-Group                       Ottawa
11 – 12           Negotiation with AEU****** Unit V                                                   Ottawa

AUGUST

1                      Plantgate – CAS Can Do It Campaign – Local 70030 –Ottawa Technology Centre         Ottawa
7                      Meeting with the Assistant Commissioner of HRB*******          Ottawa
9                      Conference call with CRA for implementation of the Collective Agreement                     Ottawa
20                    Conference call with CRA on modernization of the GTA********                                       Ottawa
23 – 26           EO********* Regional Conference                                                 Calgary

SEPTEMBER

5                      Negotiation with AEU****** Unit V                                                 Ottawa
5 – 8               Interregional Conference - Montreal / Quebec Regions           Jonquière
 

Acronym

*= Tax Services Office
**= Public Affairs Branch
***= National Union Management Consultation Committee
****= National Board of Director
*****= PSAC National Strategy/Strike Co-ordinating Committee
******= Alliance Employees Union
*******= Human Resources Branch
*******= Greater Toronto Area
********= Equal Opportunities

MEMBERSHIP:

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Brière
National President