Canadian Forest Service
Labour Management Consultation Committee
Minutes from the November 10, 2009 meeting
10:00 a.m. to Noon
In attendance:
Jim Farrell Assistant Deputy Minster, CFS and Chairperson
William Pynn President, UEW-STE
Daryl Hoelke Executive Assistant, UEW-STE
Roy Prokopuk National Consultation Team President, NRCan- PIPSC
Mamdouh Abou-Zaid Acting Lead Steward for PIPSC
Carol Fairbrother Local President, CAPE
Jennifer Hollington Director General, POIB, CFS
Lesia Maruschak Director, Planning and Renewal Division
Brian Sacho Associate Director, HR Operations, SSO
Guylaine Naef HR Advisor, CFS HR Operations, SSO
Regrets:
Barry Wheeler Lead Steward for PIPSC
1. Welcome, Approval of Agenda
The Chairperson, Jim Farrell, called members to order at 10:10 a.m. and welcomed participants. The agenda was reviewed and no additional items were added. PIPSC requested that agenda item #7 (Impact of Strategic Review on CFS) and #8 (Federal Public Service Code of Conduct on CFS Staff) be referred directly to the Departmental LMCC.
Jim reviewed the action items from the previous minutes; all items were completed. Roy Prokopuk requested that the Area of Selection guidelines for the transition period be forwarded to him as he was not on the distribution list when these were originally sent out.
Action #1: Human Resources to forward Area of Selection Guidelines to Roy Prokopuk.
2. CFS HR Renewal Update
Jim Farrell provided an update on the Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) results. He informed committee members that overall the survey results for CFS were positive. Nevertheless, he noted that it was important that management understand the issues being raised by employees and has asked his DGs to follow up on any issues. CFS managers are engaging staff on the survey results: 27 engagement activities have been completed and another 17 are planned. Finally, Jim mentioned that response to the PSES forms part of DGs’ performance agreements.
Jim updated the committee on the CFS Recruitment Strategy, indicating that 143 positions have been approved for indeterminate staffing, with the majority to be staffed this year.
In terms of the CFS Term Strategy, Jim stated that indeterminate staffing was completed for 53 of the 55 positions previously occupied by terms and that the goal was to achieve a term population reduction of 79% by March 2010. He also noted that term staffing would continue to be used when and where legitimate.
Daryl Hoelke questioned whether CFS frequently used temp help. Jennifer Hollington responded that she did not believe CFS has a high number of temps. Jim offered to bring forward information on the use of temp help at the next meeting.
Action #2: Jennifer Hollington to bring information to the next LMCC on the sector’s use of temporary help services.
Roy Prokopuk asked what impact the new Ontario Employment Standards Act would have on sector hiring of future temps.
3. Qualicum Move Update
Jim Farrell noted that the move to Qualicum was still on track with CFS employees from the 7th, 8th, and 12th floors targeted to move to Qualicum in January 2010, and moving back to 580 Booth in 1 year.
Jennifer Hollington informed participants that there had been a Town Hall session for employees and that this meeting was well attended. Parking will be available for all who request it, and cooperative car pooling is being explored. Terry Hatton is the lead for the CFS move committee and a creativity group will be providing ideas for the retrofit of space in 580 Booth. Tours of the 9th and 10th floors are also being organized for staff to get an initial idea of what the office space might look like when they return.
Carol Fairbrother noted that MMS employees had expressed concerns about the height of the open office partitions in the retrofitted space at 580 Booth. She suggested that CFS keep this in mind when floors 9 and 10 return early December 2009.
4. Adequate training for supervisors and managers
Roy Prokopuk suggested that supervisors and managers may not be adequately trained for conducting interviews and/or doing performance appraisals, and noted that the department does not appear to keep track of the effectiveness of training taken by employees. He asked whether CFS allocates $1500 per employee for training as is done in other sectors.
Jim Farrell noted that about 100 employees have received LoCoP (Learning Organization Community of Practice) training. He stated that CFS did not necessarily follow a dollar figure per employee, and that in headquarters the biggest portion of training dollars is used for language training.
Brian Sacho mentioned that the question regarding a database of training would be an appropriate item to be raised at the departmental LMCC given that it is being raised in all other LMCCs. Brian also suggested that bargaining agents should not wait for LMCCs to raise concerns but rather share them as they arise. This also helps in better tracking of issues and helps to determine the magnitude of the problem to ensure a proper course of action. Brian also mentioned that some new initiatives were being considered at the departmental level that may help address some of the concerns being raised.
5. HR Plan 2009-2012 Status
Roy Prokopuk mentioned that the CFS 2007-09 HR Plan was not on the Wiki and asked whether CFS was preparing its own plan or if it would be using the departmental plan.
Jim Farrell noted that the 2010-13 Departmental Integrated Business Planning exercise is under way and that CFS is part of this process. Jennifer Hollington stated that CFS does not expect to have a standalone HR plan.
Roy also asked about succession planning and whether or not CFS had such a plan. Jim replied that Gordon Miller (from the Northern Forestry Centre) is currently on a SAPP to work on knowledge retention. His task is to identify institutional arrangements to retain and capture knowledge. He also noted that discussions have taken place with managers to identify staffing priorities.
In response to Roy’s question about Emeritus scientists, Jim noted that the sector would be more explicit about their roles and expectations.
The CFS 2007-2009 HR Plan is available through the CFS Intranet at http://wiki.nrcan.gc.ca/images/e/e8/CFS_HRStrat_2May06_e.pdf.
6. Transparency of CFS Staffing and Collective Staffing Actions
Roy Prokopuk asked about CFS’s position regarding the OEE practice of advertising staffing and pools on its intranet site.
Jim indicated openness to the practice, suggesting that it would be a corporate function. Brian Sacho also expressed openness to exploring the practice, but noted that it is important not to duplicate existing tools such as Publiservice. In response to questions regarding CFS’s use of pools, Jim noted that the sector recently ran a national EX-01 pool and a national REM-02 pool.
Action #3: HR to provide update at next LMCC meeting
7. Impact of Strategic Review on CFS
Deferred to Departmental LMCC.
8. Federal Public Service Code of Conduct on CFS Staff
Deferred to Departmental LMCC.
9. Appraisals & Learning/Training Plans
Roy Prokopuk asked for 2008 completion statistics.
Jim Farrell responded that CFS had a 95% completion rate for 2008 and a 93% completion rate for 2007.
10. Laboratory Privatization
Roy Prokopuk asked about laboratory privatization in regard to the Great Lakes Forestry Centre.
Jim Farrell stated that the reference to GLFC in Federal Budget 2009 was related to the Invasive Species Centre, in which the federal government has invested $9 million.
11. Official and Unofficial Overtime Clarification
Roy Prokopuk mentioned that the language respecting overtime in collective agreements has different interpretations and said he found Richard Tobin’s email to NRCan staff about overtime to be helpful. Jim stated that he has discussions about overtime with his managers and that emails to all departmental staff provide consistency across the department. Brian Sacho agreed that such statements should come from the department.
12. Capital Purchases/Reserves – Regional Disparity Due To “Centralized” Decision-Making
Mamdouh Abou-Zaid stated that new scientists need equipment, and credited CFS for recent investments in S&T equipment. He asked whether the department has a plan for scientific equipment. He noted that this is an issue in all the regional centres.
Jim Farrell agreed that there had been little spending on scientific equipment before last year. He noted, however, that the sector invested about $800,000 last year and about $2.3 million this year; it expects to make additional scientific equipment purchases next year. He asked Jennifer Hollington to look at setting aside some funds to anticipate the need for new equipment, as opposed to replacement of existing equipment.
Action #4: Jennifer Hollington to look at a mechanism to be able to quickly respond to the need to make equipment purchases for new scientists.
Other Business
Daryl Hoelke asked about getting an employment equity report. Jennifer Hollington committed to provide this.
Action #5: Jennifer Hollington committed to providing an employment equity report.
Daryl also asked for an update regarding EG career progression. Jim stated that the issue of career progression was noted as a concern in the Public Service Employee Survey 2008, and asked Jennifer Hollington to follow up on the specific discussions that had occurred in the Pacific Forestry Centre (PFC) about EG career progression.
Daryl also noted that employees sense the working level has decreased from the EG-06 to the EG-05 level. He said that EG-05s and EG-04s are raising concerns because they see no career progression opportunities, with jobs being advertised nationally and externally and requiring higher education levels. Bill Pynn noted that he would like to see something come of the work that was done to look at EGs in PFC. Jim Farrell asked Jennifer Hollington to follow up with the PFC DG.
Action #6: Jennifer Hollington to follow up with the DG of PFC on the EG career progression discussions.
Daryl Hoelke noted that the move to Qualicum was a local issue, and that it would be better to discuss this at a local committee since the current meeting is a national level meeting. This was agreed to by all. Jim offered to provide a brief to the UEW Local President, John Coltess.
Action #7: Jennifer Hollington to offer to brief local UEW representatives on CFS’s move to Qualicum.
Daryl Hoelke raised an issue about the process being used to inform bargaining agents of new employees. Although Corporate Labour Relations has been advising bargaining agents at the national level, UEW feels it would be more efficient to have this information sent at the local level rather than have the national level sort and re-distribute accordingly. Brian Sacho committed to follow up with his corporate colleagues.
Action #8: Brian Sacho to discuss with Corporate Labour Relations the provision of information on new employees to local bargaining agents.
Roy Prokopuk noted that some regional LMCC minutes seemed to be missing on the intranet site, specifically for Northern and Pacific Forestry Centres. Brian Sacho committed to follow up on the posting of LMCC minutes. Roy also suggested that the ADM distribute the minutes of the CFS LMCC to staff. Jennifer Hollington agreed to provide a link to them via the CFS Intranet once finalized and posted.
Action #9: Brian Sacho to follow up on the posting of all LMCC minutes.
Action #10: Jennifer Hollington to add a link to the CFS LMCC minutes on the CFS Intranet.
Roundtable
Jim Farrell informed participants that as a result of Budget 2009, funding had been received to set up the Pulp & Paper Green Transformation Program, and thanked members from the bargaining units for working extremely hard to get the program in place.
The next meeting was tentatively scheduled for April 12, 2010.
The meeting adjourned at noon.