75th ARC -ATLANTIC REGIONAL MANAGER’S REPORT

75th Atlantic Regional Council

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

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES WITH THE REGION

Training

The following training sessions have been facilitated by staff to members across the region:

Basic Steward Training was held September 21-23, 2017, at the Delta Beauséjour, Moncton, NB.

New Brunswick Occupational Safety and Health Training was held November 2-4, 2017, at the Delta Beauséjour, Moncton, NB.

Basic Steward Training  was held February 15 -17, 2018, at the Delta Halifax, Halifax, NS.

Atlantic Regional Training School was held April 12-14, 2018, at Atlantica Oak Island Inn, Western Shore NS. This year, Sean Kemball , Employment Relations Officer, Prairies, joined us as a co-facilitator. The modules offered were:

• Advanced Grievance Handling
• Building Effective Consultation Teams
• Bullying and Harassment- Making it Right
• Valuing Human Rights & Diversity

The sessions generated a lot of interest and discussion and were well received by all in attendance.

Representation

Significant Cases & Trends

Miramichi Pay Centre/Phoenix – As pay related matters continue to plaque our members working throughout the federal sector, PIPSC initiated a new “All Hands on Deck” approach to deal with the volume of pay related inquiries. The new approach includes a new Stewards Toolkit on how to file pay related grievances, the establishment of a phoenix-help@pipsc.ca e-mail as well as a new full-time resource in Ottawa, Lionel Siniyunguruza, to assist stewards and members with pay issues, as well as a concentrated effort of consultation/grievances to put pressure on Departments to hire more compensation staff to help reduce the stagnant backlog of cases. Many stewards have accepted the challenge and have been filing these pay grievances and representing members at grievance meetings. The new strategy has significantly reduced the number of e-mails/phone calls that ERO’s are receiving on pay matters and has allowed PIPSC to better track the key issues and trends for phoenix UMCC consultations.

Violence in the Workplace – This continues to be a major Health and Safety issue in many workplaces. Under Part II of the Canada Labour Code, employers are required to “take the prescribed steps to prevent and protect against violence in the workplace”. We have assisted members with a handful of violence in the workplace investigations and some have resulted in findings of Violence. 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.

Return to Work/Duty to Accommodate – There continues to be a steady stream of situations where members require workplace accommodations in order to do their jobs. The ERO’s continue to work with the members, the managers, and human resources specialists to ensure the appropriate accommodations are put in place. Given the complexity of the situation, often ERO’s are required to push for innovative solutions to existing barriers such as cases that involve mental health related issues and/or cases associated with medical marijuana.  Requests for Family Status accommodation is also on the rise related to specific/unique child care requirements as well as the need for parental care. Each case must be supported on the facts of that particular circumstance and there must be continuing and ongoing efforts by the Employer to put the appropriate accommodation in place. Overall we have been very successful in assisting members faced with these difficult and stressful workplace situations.

Reliability Status – Despite the fact there are some Federal Court of Appeal and FPSLRB decisions relating to the inappropriate suspension/denial of reliability status, some Departments and Agencies in the Atlantic Region continue to use this security investigation approach as a first resort to possible workplace misconduct. The EROs’ continue to help members file grievances when their reliability status has been suspended or revoked when there are not proper grounds to do so. The jurisprudence is clear that the FLR&EB has the authority to hear these types of non-disciplinary matters and can overturn reliability suspensions/revocations that are improperly administered.

The FLR&EB will examine whether the employer had legitimate concern regarding the risk that the employee posed to the Employer’s security. That level of risk also must involve an assessment of whether there is reasonable cause the employee may abuse the trust accorded. It should also include the level of reliability required to perform the duties of a job as well as a judgement of whether such risks are acceptable or not.

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 also assisted a handful of members who were rejected on probation and assisted a member at a final level grievance substitute the rejection on probation with a resignation. ERO’s were also successful in resolving two disciplinary matters that were days from being heard by the FPSLR&EB.

New Brunswick Issues – Over the past year we have seen an increased commitment by the New Brunswick Treasury Board to consult on a broader range of labour relations issues that affect our members. The issue concerning disparities in the Hay Classification System and the NB Classification standards was highlighted in a number of PIPSC cases. Through our concerted effort to address these fairness issues, the Treasury Board agreed to complete a classification review of all Eng-3 positions. We are expecting this review will result in some senior positions being reclassified. In relation to other classification issues, there has been a lengthy delay in getting Classification Appeal Boards established. PIPSC has made this a standing item on the Provincial LMCC and has requested ongoing updates on the status of PIPSC Appeals and where our positions stand in the Que. On 4 April 2018, the Veterinary and Agrologists UMCC was re-established to discuss consultation issues with local managers. This is the first time a local level UMCC has been held for the Vets in the past 5 years. PIPSC attended a Treasury Board briefing on the new Violence in the Workplace Legislation that was introduced in late April 2018.

Harassment – Harassment complaints/ issues are still prevalent in the workplace. The issues vary from members being harassed by colleagues to members feeling harassed by supervisors and/or members in the management chain. In some cases, both the Complaintant and the Respondant are PIPSC members and so separate ERO’s are assigned to ensure conflict of interest and confidentiality matters are protected. 

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.

Change in Portfolios -  In an effort to maximize our skills and resources, there was a slight changes in the division of responsibilities of the ERO’s. Max Way is now the ERO for DFO. Paul has responsibility for ESDC and NRCan and Barry added ACOA to his portfolio. The complete listing of the Atlantic Region representational services was posted on the PIPSC website.

CLOSING

Enjoy the 75^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