Annual General Meeting

of the Statistics Canada CS Sub-group

March 28, 2017

Minutes

  • Approval of the agenda for the meeting – Tony Goddard

Mover: Olivia Lamarre

Seconded by: David Beck

Motion carried

  • Approval of the 2016 AGM minutes – Tony Goddard

Mover: Don Whiting

Seconded by: Greg Bell

Motion carried

  • Introduction of the executive members – Tony Goddard

Tony Goddard President of the CS Sub-Group

Don Whiting Vice-President

Robert Hébert Treasurer

Mary Religa Secretary

Tanya Scheel Member at-large

Frédéric Beaudoin Secretary

Greg Bell Member at-large

Shannon Blaney Member at-large

  • President’s Report – Tony Goddard

Highlights of the report where spoken to

  • 2016 Financial Report – Robert Hébert

Mover: Robert Hébert

Seconded by: John Meier

Motion carried

  • Budgets 2017 (revised) & 2018 – Robert Hébert

The 2017 budget is presented for information only.

Mover for the approval of the 2018 budget: Robert Hébert

Seconded by: Tony Goddard

Motion carried

  • Elections – Tony Goddard

Members whose mandate was up for re-election:

    • Greg Bell
    • Robert Hébert
    • Mary Religa

Nominations received:

  • Greg Bell - accepted
    • Robert Hébert - accepted
    • Mary Religa - accepted

Six positions were available.  3 Positions elected by acclamation.

  • Bargaining Update – Stan Buday, CS Group President

There is an offer and the only way TB would agree to the offer was if the bargaining team would recommend it.  So they are.

Stan spoke to the 3 main necessities of this offer:

  1. Contracting out which he indicated that it was not the job security language they were hoping for but they could live with it.
  2. Professional development will be offered at least once per year.
  3. Technology change – employer shall provide training to employees.

Hours of work have been changed to better define flexibility, AWA, and compressed work week within 28 days.

The volunteer day is now a personal day.

Wage increases of 1.25% over 4 years (beginning 2014) with a wage adjustment (economic increase) of 1% on April 1, 2016.  He noted that this was the worst economic increase ever.

Bereavement leave has been expanded to include step and foster children.

Family related leave will include mother-in-law and father-in-law and any person to whom there is a duty of care.

There was one question from the floor from Robert Hébert: ‘Was there anything left on the table’ (as Treasury Board made the bargaining team recommend the offer)?

Stan indicated that Treasury Board was prepared with a lot of statistics supporting the wage offer and the bargaining team, while prepared, did not have the ammunition to get a better wage offer.  It would be a crap shoot for more money and we could lose something we have already gained it we push for more money.  This offer was a comprehensive offer.  The team had to sign off on the entire offer.  This is the only time we will bargain a comprehensive offer.

  • Question Period

No question raised.

  • Door Prizes

10 - $25 gift cards

Nicolas Champagne

Nicholas Vachon

Anik Laflamme

Eric Joyal

Wing Hui Jang

Nicolas Trahan

Jenny Lidstone

Greg Ludwinski

Umbrellas

Cara Thornhill

Abu Nomani

Theresa Rumke

Robert Bowi Reed

Willo Wallace

Greg Bell

Xibin Liu

Dallia Umwanamwiza

Zarrin Langari

Julie Savoie

Backpacks

Robin Bouchard

Raymond Dang

Cory Matieyshen

Joyce Fung

Stephen Wong

Panjay Sud

Jessica Coulas

Wilson Tam

Olivia Lamarre

Yuriy Koszarycz

  • Adjournment of the meeting

Mover: Mary Religa

Seconded by: Robert Hébert

Motion carried

President’s Report

Last year at this time I was lamenting about the passing of a year and we were still in the middle of negotiations. This year I wrote three versions of the introduction to my annual report. Version one was complaining about how we were still in negotiations without a tentative agreement; version two was lamenting the fact that Treasury Board treats us terribly and we are in the process of a strike vote and finally version three was rejoicing that we have a tentative agreement and all I need to do is rally the members to get out and vote.

Our Bargaining Team has had a long hard journey from the time our Collective Agreement expired in December of 2014 until today. They have spent countless days away from home in consultation with members and in negotiations with the Treasury Board hammering out the details for a new Collective Agreement. Over the course of these negotiations we have seen frustration as the Harper Government held us back and weakened our numbers, we saw a government thrown out of office with the help of our rallying members, we saw hope grow and fade as the new government kept good on many promises but seemed to neglect the Civil Servants and we have overcome frustration as we scratched out deals with the Treasury Board and their new masters. Regardless of the outcome, whether you feel we got a fair deal or not, we must all remember that our Team fought on our behalf for the best deal they could get and they were not willing to “settle” for anything less. I applaud the CS Negotiating Team and hope that they, or a group just as dedicated, take up the challenge when we need them again.

What improvements have they negotiated?

  • Contracting Out (Article 30) – the new wording directs the employer to give first consideration to CS members before contracting out. It also affords us greater protection during times of Workforce Adjustment. Further, a Memorandum of Agreement was reached which establishes a working group from DND, SSC, ESDC and the CS Group to develop guidelines and a reporting system for contracting out.
  • Career Development (Article 18) – now provides for access to yearly career development that shall not be reasonably denied.
  • Sick Leave – the current sick leave system will remain in place for the time being. A new Employee Wellness Support Program (EWSP) will be developed jointly by the Employer and PIPSC. It will focus on improving employee wellness and the reintegration of employees into the workplace after periods of leave due to illness or injury. Key features being negotiated are:
    • It will still be part of the Collective Agreement.
    • Benefits for up to 26 weeks with 100% of your salary.
    • Annual allotment of 9 days of paid sick leave for illness or injury not covered by EWSP.
    • 100% income replacement during the 3-day qualification period when the claim is approved.
    • Qualifying chronic or episodic illnesses will be exempt of the waiting period.
    • The qualification period will be waived in cases of hospitalization or recurrence of a prior illness or injury approved under EWSP within 30 days.
    • Carryover a maximum of 3 days of unused sick leave credits to the following fiscal year.
    • Accumulation of current sick leave credits will stop when EWSP is implemented. Employees with more than 26 weeks of sick leave banked will be entitled to carry over the excess days to provide extended coverage at 100% income replacement before accessing LTD.
    • Travel time for diagnosis and treatment.
    • Internal case management and return to work services focused on supporting employees when ill or injured.
    • When on EWSP, the employee will be considered to be on leave with pay.
    • Full costs of administration will be borne by the Employer.
    • Increase family related leave by 1 (one) day.
  • Workforce Adjustment – New improved wording on WFA, which we hope to never have to use, in our Collective Agreement.
  • Economic increase offered is:
    • Effective December 2014 – 1.25%
    • Effective December 2015 – 1.25%
    • Effective April 2016 – 1.00% economic adjustment
    • Effective December 2017 – 1.25%
    • Effective December 2018 – 1.25%

While the deal is not everything we were hoping for, it does move our contract language forward and has opened the doors for future continued negotiations on several key issues that affect the CS community.

A major issue that you will be hearing a lot about in the very near future is the new classification for the CS Group. TBS will be implementing a new IT Group classification standard by fall of 2018. The timeline is very tight and, in my opinion, optimistic but they are expected to sign-off on the new classification and start reviewing job descriptions by late summer 2017 with a full implementation by end of 2018. Keep your ears and eyes open for more information on this process as it will affect your career.

Here at STATCAN we have had a full year as well. After a quiet and peaceful summer, we welcomed the cooler autumn weather with a Golf Tournament at Falcon Ridge in early September. In November we tried something new and hosted an evening of billiards and table tennis at Tailgator’s – the food was good and the opportunity to network with other CS in a relaxed atmosphere was welcomed by most.

We got formal and invited CS President Stan Buday and CS Negotiating Officer Robert Tellier to give us an update on bargaining in December. The event was well attended and the information from Stan and Robert was appreciated by all and we set a new record for the number of pizzas consumed.

In February and again in March of this year we gave away T-shirts to allow you, the CS members, to show a bit of solidarity with the National CS community. A TUIF (Thank the Union Its Friday) T-shirt with a STATCAN CS logo on the sleeve, when worn by many, helps promote CS visibility in and around STATCAN and demonstrates to management that we are united. After some conflicting messages from management about when and where we could wear them, I presented a T-Shirt to one of the IT Directors … I’m not sure why, but I haven’t seen him wear it yet at work. For those who may have been told that these T-Shirts cannot be worn at work or that you cannot display PIPSC visibility items in your office, I took this issue up with senior management and they have deemed our T-Shirts and other PIPSC SWAG items acceptable in the workplace. The only consideration that must be observed is that we cannot show our employer in a bad light in the workplace, which of course we never do.  Also remember that there are restrictions on taking pictures in our workplace to protect the confidentiality of our data.

If you have any ideas for networking events, rallies, visibility events or if you want an information session on a specific topic as it relates to the CS community, let one of the executive know and we will see what we can do.

Once again I’m making a plea for your help. We currently have vacancies on the CS Sub-Group executive. If you would like to help us run events at Statistics Canada, please step forward when we have our elections later during this meeting. Maybe you’d like to get even more involved by becoming a PIPSC Steward. We provide all the training free of charge and the rewards and personal growth are immeasurable.

If you need to contact one of us, you can find us on the ICN, the CSSD Electronic Bulletin displays in the lobbies, and on the PIPSC web site.

Thank you for letting me serve you.

Better Together,