Chairpersons

Mr. René Larose,Acting/Assistant Deputy Minister (S&T)/CEO DRDC (Co-Chair)

Mr. Tom Ollevier, Steward (NCR), Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (Co-Chair)

Present

Ms. Kirsten McDowell, replacing Dr. Anthony Ashley, Director General, DRDC CSS

Ms. Darlene de Gravina, Director Research and Development Human Resources

Dr. Ross Graham, Director General, DRDC CORA

Dr. Cam Boulet, Director General, DRDC Suffield

Mr. Terry Kiley, Vice-President (Nova Scotia), Union of National Defence Employees

Mr. Rick Williams,Director General Science and Technology Operations (DGSTO)

Mr. Patrick Myre, Manager, Labour Relations, DRDHR

Dr. Dale Reding, Director General, DRDC Toronto

Ms. Maria Rey, Director General DRDC Ottawa

Mr. Kelly Farley, replacing Ms. Susan Truscott, Director General, Military Personnel Research and Analysis

Mr. Colin McEwan, Director General Research and Development, Corporate Services

Mr. Jack Cornett, Director General, DRDC Atlantic

Dr. Guy Vézina, Director General DRDC Valcartier

Mr. Todd Faulkner, Shop Steward, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Mr. Matthew McLeod, Steward, Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada

Observers

Ms. Mélanie Bernard, Labour Relations Advisor, DRDHR

Ms. Samora Merizier, Human Resources Advisor, DRDHR

Absent

Mr. John Lachance, Chief Shop Steward, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Ms. Huguette Chevrier, Employment Relations Officer, Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada

Mr. Luc Gervais, Canadian Association of Professional Employees

Mr. Raffie Stepanian, Representative, Association of Canadian Financial Officers

SUBJECT / DISCUSSION / ACTIONS BY
1. Opening Remarks /
Observations preliminaries /
  • Mr. Larose welcomed all to his first UMCC as the Acting ADM (S&T) and made the introductions of new managers of DRDC.
  • Mr. Ollevier also welcomed all participants and introduced Mr. Todd Faulkner as the official new union representative for IEBW.

1.1 Acceptance of the Minutes of the last meeting held on June 23th 2010/
Adoption du procès-verbal de la dernière réunion, tenue le 10juin 2010 /
  • The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted by all members present and were signed by the co-chairs.
  • Request for change was made under Item 7 Round Table, to change Mr. Boulay’s named to Boulet.

1.2 Acceptance of the Proposed Agenda /
Adoption de l’ordre du jour proposé /
  • Agenda accepted by committee members

2. Update on the action items of last meeting /
Rapport sur les mesures à prendre à la suite de la dernière réunion / Electronic Bulletin Boards for sharing union information with employees
  • Mr. Myre explained that DRDKIM installed new Sharepoint software 2010 and that DRDKIM is still testing this new application. Testing is expected to be completed in January 2011. Once authorized by DRDKIM, DRDHR will launch the Electronic Bulletin Board with associated guidelines.
  • ACTION: DRDHR working with DRDKIM on SharePoint options for posting UMCC minutes, Decks and ROD.
/ Ms. de Gravina
3. New DND Staffing Guidelines/Nouvelles directives en dotation du MDN: /
  • Ms. de Gravina explained the new staffing guidelines received from the department. The main points are that there should be no hiring from outside DND without the approval from the Civilian Workforce Management Board and that all L1s were asked to remain within the SWE budget.
  • Ms. de Gravina also explained that RDEC will review the proposed internal staffing actions for risk-managed positions and will makedecisions based on these new guidelines.
  • Ms. de Gravinaindicated that an exemption for external hiring for DSs would be sought from the Civilian Workforce Management board, based on the resemblance of the DS career management structure to a Developmental program.
  • Mr. Kiley asked if for the EGs it will be the same approach.
  • Ms. de Gravina replied that the EG program is not an approved program yet.
  • Mr. Kiley mentioned that since October 2010, the union is seeing a lot of communications on this issue and wonder if this is a strategy to eliminate some positions.
  • Ms. de Gravina replied no.
  • Mr. Larose added that although DND will likely seek to reduce to a goal of 25000 civilians.
  • Mr. McEwan added that DRDC’s goal is to retain our staff and reductions will occur by attrition.
  • Dr. Graham also mentioned that DRDC needs to review what is important to continue and what functions we should stop.
  • Mr. Kiley asked if we could share these letters received by the department on this issue.

  • ACTION: DRDHR to share the letters from the department of staffing restraints.
/ Ms. de Gravina
4. Business Plan/Plan d’affaire: /
  • Because of a communication problem, Mr. Dahel was unable to make his presentation on this subject.
  • Mr. Larose recommended that a written presentation be submitted to all participants for their comments.
  • ACTION: Mr. Dahel will provide a copy of his presentation to Mr. Myre to be distributed with the draft minutes of this meeting.
/ Mr. Dahel
Mr. Myre
5.Talent Management/Gestion des talents: /
  • Ms. de Gravina explained that Talent Manages focuses on best practices in HR management. It is a life cycle approach on the management of employees. Ms. De Gravina gave examples on various retention issues and dual (position-based and incumbent-based) system.
  • Ms. De Gravina then outlined the attached DRDC Talent Management Learning Framework. Many of these items we are already doing. The focus this year will be on step 1.

  • Ms. de Gravina added that succession planning training will be mandatory at DND in the next fiscal year. DRDC will have to address the issue first as to what are the critical positions that need to be filled at all times. The Corporate focus will be to support HROs in managing this process.
  • Ms. de Gravina concluded in mentioning that we hope to be able to have an electronic exit interview soon, based on a pilot program at ADM(HR-Civ).
  • Mr. Ollevier mentioned that he was happy to see that DRDC is encouraging dialogues.
  • Mr. Larose added that we develop people but we are not in control if they leave.
  • Mr. Kiley commented that the exit interview is working well at Marlant and it is recognized as a good tool.
  • Ms. de Gravina asked if the union sat with management in order to review result.
  • Dr. Graham added that it was more a questionnaire that is distributed and management collects results.
  • Mr. Faulkner made a comment that we may want to give the option to staff to either do it in person or by computer.
  • Mr. Larose agreed that there were more benefits when dealt in person.
  • Mr. Ollevier mentioned that it will be difficult to execute Step 1 of the attachment during this time of freeze.
  • Mr. Larose reiterated that Step 1 is now critical.

6. DGMPRA LMRC / CCSP de DGRAPM: /
  • Ms. de Gravina mentioned that DGMPRA had the intention of having their first LMRC but aside from PIPSC, they did not had any other union representatives. Ms. de Gravina also mentioned that both CORA and Corporate Office also had union representation issues.
  • Ms. Rey agreed that union representation was an issue across our organization for LMRCs.
  • Mr. Larose explained the conjuncture of DGMPRA with regards to CMP. Mr. Larose also explained the difficulties within NCR compared to outside centers. Mr. Larose recommended to send to all unions a communication explaining are commitment and ask for input to see if there is an interest or if we can change to format of those LMRCs.
  • Mr. Ollevier asked if we could share the list of all LMRC to see who is participating.
  • Mr. Larose mentioned that this issue will be on the next agenda item in order to pursue discussion.
  • ACTION: DRDHR to share the list of LMRC participants across DRDC.
/ Ms. de Gravina
7. Round Table / Table ronde: /
  • Dr. Graham informed the committee that DGMPRA and CORA had a joint LMRC recently. An agreement was reached concerning the Terms of Reference of such committee.
  • Ms. Rey informed the committee that their respective LMRC functioned well. She also praised the joint sponsored activities such as their annual Town Hall and which unions brought items for discussion.
  • Mr. McEwan mentioned that for the Corporate LMRC the issue might be frequency but would like to see a balance around all centers.
  • Dr. Vézina said that their LMRC functioned very well and union officials also did shadowing for three months. He also mentioned that he liked the idea of DRDC Ottawa with their Town Hall. In his center, they have a good involvement with women and they have developed a committee to oversee initiatives to support women in S&T. He mentioned that they also have a committee on EAP addressing work life balance.
  • Mr. Ollevier mentioned that he had recently met with Treasury Board on exchange of bargaining proposals and noticed that Treasury Board divested itself from managing certain components in agreements and provided those authorities to each department. Mr. Ollevier wanted to know what was DRDC’s position on this.
  • Mr. Larose mentioned that DRDC will remain status quo.
  • Mr. Kiley asked if the Quest would be available next spring.
  • Mr. Cornett answered that we certainly hope so and that tests were expected in March.
  • Mr. McLeod made comments pertaining to messages received by the department with regards to Wikileaks and said that this was not the best way to disseminate a message.
  • Mr. Farley mentioned that a LMRC at DGMPRA was coming up.
  • Dr. Boulet mentioned that Suffield had also re-signed their Terms of references because of old language. He also mentioned that his center demonstrated a lot of interest in Talent Management. He noticed that they had been doing it for a while. Suffield frequent point of discussion was climate advisory. Every morning at 7:00 a.m. a determination is made with the help of radio, web-site and phone lines in order to advise employees about commuting safely to work.
  • Mr. Cornett mentioned that he met with his local committee which is very well represented. There is a good interest on Talent Management and on way to improve communications.
  • Mr. Faulkner said that LMRCs and Town Hall are very good practices and views these as success stories.
  • Ms. McDowell mentioned that at CSS, they tried to develop a LMRC but it was not a big interest with their staff.
  • Dr. Reding said that their LMRCs worked very well and they also had a big interest with Talent Management.

8. Closing Remarks/ Mot de la fin: /
  • Mr. Ollevier mentioned that he was happy with Talent Management but was more concerned with the Staffing Guidelines.
  • Mr. Larose concluded in saying that the Staffing Guidelines were also a concern of his. A big focus will be on business plans. He wants to keep this level of dialogue with unions and will continue to work with them on improvements.

These Minutes are approved unanimously on this ______day of the month of ______2011.

Mr. René Larose, Co-ChairMr. T. Ollevier, Co-Chair

DRDC Union-Management Consultation Committee Meeting - Minutes Page 1 of 6 Last update: February 25, 2011