President's Report - Executive Council

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS (AGMs):

Since my last report, National Officers have continued to attend Locals' Annual General Meetings (AGMs) across the country, whether in person or in virtual or hybrid format. I would like to thank the Locals for their cooperation in scheduling these meetings. As usual, members are very engaged at these meetings. Not surprisingly, since the announcement on May 1 by Treasury Board and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that federal public service workers will be required to report to the office for a minimum of three days a week as of September 9, this issue has become the main topic of discussion. The other hotly discussed issue is CRA's decision not to renew the employment contracts of some 2,000 of our members working in Contact Centres.

Several other meetings are scheduled for this spring.

On behalf of the National Officers, I would like to congratulate our Locals for all their hard work, and thank them for their warm welcome, commitment and dedication to our members and our Union.

Once again, I would like to thank the different technicians at Electronic Language Communications Ltd (ELC) for the excellent technical support they provide at the meetings. I also want to thank our Information Technology Specialist, Alex Thon, and our Web/Communications Officer, Susan Duncan, for their excellent work in assisting Locals in their preparations for the AGMs.

PSAC 2024 NATIONAL TRIENNIAL CONVENTION:

The 20th National Triennial Convention of the PSAC will be held May 26-31, 2024 at the Shaw Centre, 55 Colonel By Street, Ottawa.

The UTE caucus, to which our Component delegates and observers are invited, as well as all other convention participants who are UTE members, will be held on Sunday, May 26, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The meeting will be held in room 214 at the Shaw Centre. Please note that at this caucus, the four UTE Officers who participated in the PSAC pre-convention committee meetings, Brothers Doug Gaetz and Adam Jackson, as well as Sister Kimberley Koch, and myself, will give participants the main takeaways from these meetings (e.g., committee priorities, most significant resolutions, resolutions coming from UTE, etc.). We will also answer a few questions from participants. In addition, during this meeting, we will have the pleasure of welcoming the candidates for the different PSAC positions up for election at the Convention. Finally, at the end of the meeting, we will be distributing promotional items bearing the UTE logo, which our members can proudly display during Convention.

As is customary at PSAC Conventions, UTE will have a Hospitality Suite. The suite will be located in the “Macdonald” meeting room on the Mezzanine floor of the Château Laurier Hotel. The hours of operation of the Hospitality Suite will be as follows: Saturday evening May 25 to Wednesday evening May 29: 5:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. (last service: 12:00 a.m.), and Thursday evening May 30: 5:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. (last service: 12:30 a.m.).

JOINT CONSULTATION COMMITTEE ON VIRTUAL WORK ARRANGEMENTS:

In light of the Commissioner's recent arbitrary and unilateral decision, without consultation with UTE, to comply with Treasury Board's directive to increase to an average of three days per week the Rollout of On-site Presence (ROOP), the UTE Co-Chair on the Joint Consultation Committee (JCC) contacted the CRA Co-Chair on the committee to find out whether the employer was able and willing to respect the spirit and intent of the Letter of Agreement (LoA) signed during last year's negotiations, and to continue discussions despite the Commissioner's decision. It was made clear to us that the employer's representatives on the JCC did not have the authority to deviate from the Commissioner's decision.

Therefore, after careful consideration, UTE has informed the CRA that we are of the opinion that the employer is not in compliance with the LoA and that we see no point in continuing the consultations held at the JCC at this time. However, we have indicated that we are prepared to continue consultations if the employer is willing to reconsider its position.

In response to the Commissioner's decision, at a time when the parties were supposed to be engaged in meaningful consultations, UTE asked the bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), to file an Unfair Labour Practice complaint against the CRA, alleging that the employer had not bargained in good faith, and to file a Policy Grievance under the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act, challenging the employer's decision.

CANADA REVENUE AGENCY JOINT PANEL ON VIRTUAL WORK  ARRANGEMENTS:

After careful and exhaustive consideration, UTE decided that its continued participation in the Joint Panel would best serve the interests of our members by making recommendations and influencing the employer's decisions at the final level of the grievance procedure for members challenging the employer's denial of a Virtual Work Arrangement (VWA) request.

In accordance with the Terms of Reference agreed to by the parties, the Panel will be empowered to review all grievances submitted to it and to determine whether an employee has been treated in accordance with the intent of the Directive on Virtual Work Arrangements, and to make recommendations where appropriate, prior to the Assistant Commissioner of Human Resources issuing a response at the final level of the grievance.

Further information and instructions will be provided in due course regarding the operations of the Panel and the procedures for referring a grievance to the Panel for review.

While UTE continued to accept grievances from members wishing to challenge management's denial of a VWA request under the CRA's Rollout of On-site Presence  (ROOP) in effect at the time, we advised members not to file new grievances until the JCC had completed its review of the CRA's Virtual Work Arrangements Directive and finalized our discussions at the JCC regarding remote/virtual work. The Commissioner's recent arbitrary and unilateral decision, without proper and meaningful consultation with UTE, to comply with Treasury Board's directive of an increase to an average of three days per week regarding the Rollout of On-site Presence (ROOP), has effectively ended any attempt by UTE to advance the interests of our members and closed the door to meaningful consultation.

As a result, we issued a message to our members on May 16, urging all those who need greater flexibility in their telework arrangements, better adapted to their needs, to submit a revised VWA to their supervisor for approval. In the event of a refusal, we invite them to contact their Local to assist them in filing a grievance.

We are continuing to explore all possible avenues of recourse in this matter.

We will keep you informed of any developments on this important issue.

MEETINGS WITH THE CRA CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER AND OTHER SENIOR EXECUTIVES:

I continue to have frequent discussions with the Agency's Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) on important and emerging issues.

I also had discussions with other senior Agency executives on current issues and topics such as :

• Update on the initiative of Refocusing Government Spending at the Agency and the management of term employees;
• Compensation issues;
• The non-renewal of contracts for some 2,000 members working in Contact Centres;
• Technological changes (artificial intelligence).

MEETING WITH THE CRA COMMISSIONER AND DEPUTY COMMISSIONER:

Following the May 1^st announcement by Treasury Board and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that federal public service workers will be required to report to the office for a minimum of three days per week as of September 9, I met, along with the President of the Audit, Finance, Science (AFS) group of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), with the Agency's Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Human Resources Officer to discuss this extremely important issue for a majority of our members. I also took the opportunity to protest strongly against CRA's decision not to renew the contracts of some 2,000 of our members working in Contact Centres.

MEETING WITH THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL REVENUE:

Last April, I met with Canada's Minister of National Revenue, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau. The two items on the agenda were as follows:

• The Joint Consultation Committee (JCC) on Virtual Work Arrangements;
• Treasury Board's interference in contract negotiations between the Canada Revenue Agency and the PSAC-UTE and our intent to launch a political action and lobbying campaign to pass a legislative change to Section 58 of the Canada Revenue Agency Act to put an end to this unacceptable situation.

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

INFORMATION/TECHNOLOGY

Donations/Sponsorships

NON UTE EVENTS

GRIEVANCE REPORT

march 1^st, 2024 to may 31^st, 2024

During Q1, thirty-seven (37) new grievances were received in the National office. Forty-six (46) grievances were presented.

Forty-Five (45) final level replies were received from CRA, forty-three (43) were denied, and two (2) were withdrawn. 

1. Awaiting documents from member.
2. No new updates, this grievance is still held in abeyance pending claim for damages arising from Phoenix pay issues.
3. Reply held in abeyance with the agreement of the grievor pending replies to 2 related grievances where the grievor represents himself however further background research is required.
4. One file is still waiting on member to provide requested documentation, including ATIP response. One file held in abeyance pending completion of job description review, and for the other grievances filed by one member, following the MoS signed on April 12, 2023, ongoing discussions with the terms that not yet all been implemented.

There are presently two hundred seventeen (217) grievances in the National Office inventory which have not yet been presented at the Final Level dealing with a variety of issues.

POLICY GRIEVANCES

A policy grievance challenging the Federal 3-day In-Office Mandate was filed in mid-May.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

There were no new classification grievances filed during this period.

INDEPENDENT THIRD-PARTY REVIEWS (ITPRs)

There was one (1) new ITPR grievance filed during this period.

CRA DIRECTIVES (FORMERLY NJC) GRIEVANCES

No CRA Directives formerly NJC grievances were filed during this period.

MEMBERSHIP REPORT

National President
ACTIVITY REPORT – JUNE 2024
MARC BRIÈRE

Acronyms

AEU–Alliance Employees Union 
AFS – Audit Finance Science 
AGM –Annual General Meeting 
CRA – Canada Revenue Agency

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Brière 
National President