The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
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NCR IT Regional Representative Report to the 2018 AFS Annual General Meeting

I am pleased to represent the NCR IT Region's interests on the the National Executive.  I would like to thank everyone who supported us in the Bargaining process.  With your support we were able to achieve a fair deal in the last collective agreement of 7.5% for everyone.

 On the Regional and National Level

  • CRA consults with the National Executive before it implements most new programs.  Although the union may not agree with all the new policies; we have worked in confined and non-confined discussions to protect and take into account the members rights and benefits.  In addition, Joint Union Management Committees exist to monitor and provide feedback. 
  • As the NCR IT Regional Representative I have Regional Union Management Consultation Meeting (RUMC's) with the AC/CIO & DAC where we bring up issues and get updates on issues affecting our members.  Issues such as long term acting's are discussed, we want to ensure that everyone has fair access for acting opportunities.  We also monitor the number of  Long Term Contractors.
  • Phoenix issues continue to plague our members and we are hopeful CRA finally takes ownership of the problem and implements the solution it already has developed using the internal Corporate Administrative System (CAS).
  • The NCR IT Region was divided into three subgroups this year.  The creation of the three subgroups will allow for the first time local NCR consultation at the Director General level   Members will be able to access the local subgroup to deal with local issues.  For Regional issues and issues that cannot be resolved locally, I will address them at the RUMC with them with the Assistant Commissioner/CIO.
  • The NCR IT region has 2507 members distributed in the 3 subgroups as follows:

Billings Bridge                                                             530 members

Fitzgerald                                                                     488 members

NCR IT Heron, Trainyards, St Laurent, Downtown     1,489 members

  • Thee Union Steward Initiative (USI) which I signed does allow for the recruitment of more stewards.  We now have 34 stewards..  Furthermore, ITB Management will work towards assuring  stewards and future candidates that the Branch supports and values their role as a steward.
  • Union Management Approach will be relaunched later in the year.  Supervisors and stewards are to meet with each other and work with each other to resolve issues a the appropriate lowest possible level.  The Agency and the union are committed to resolve issues using Interest Based Negotiations (IBN).
  • For the Building Consolidation we are actively engaged in the process so that our members concerns are taken into account as the ITB HQ Building are renovated to current standards.  Current leases have been extended to 2020 and beyond.
  •  Employee's continue to use EAP services at a rate of 5.8%.  Mental Wellness Issues is more of an issue as the stigma of Mental Health is coming down.
  • CRA continues to provide us with their Staffing Plan and has posted it on Infozone where it will be kept updated.   This will allow our members to see how the staffing is evolving over the coming years.   We expect job number stability in the NCR over the next year.

The Government increased the Superannuation Rates on January 1, 2018.  For current employee's is 12.13%(11.68%) of Salary and employee's hired after 2013 pay 10.46%(9.94%) of Salary.  Unfortunately, Pensions are not negotiable by Law but the Legislated increased do negatively impact our members since their is no corresponding increase in benefits.

For CRA to continue to recruit the best technology professionals and retain them Compensation needs to better correlate to private industry salaries.  Attached is a link to the  2018 Robert Half Technology & IT Salary Guide.

As we enter the next round of Bargaining, continued support for the Bargaining Team and the Union will be needed if we are again to to receive a Fair Contract that reflects the unique work AFS Members provide in maintaining the income and benefits programs Canadians depend on.

Allaudin Alibhai

AFS National NCR IT Region Representative

613-809-6453