April 4, 2006

CFHA WORKPLACE ACTION COMMITTEE REPORT OF MEETING

UNDE attended the follow up to February 9 meeting. The Committee members from across the country were brought in for a full day session to bring forward and discuss short, medium and long term initiatives to address the concerns raised in the workplace assessment, and through input from the CFHA employees. In his opening remarks Mr Alain Bastarache, the CEO CFHA, reiterated the employer’s commitment to the process and the way ahead. He again thanked all the committee members for volunteering to participate.

Participating Committee members in attendance:

Representing CFHA employees:

• Dominique Bergeron, Housing and Financial Administrator, Bagotville
• Julie Charette, Customer Service Representative, Borden
• Anne Corkery, Chief Business Operations, Esquimalt
• Janet Earp, Site Manager, Gander
• Derek Fulford, Housing Manager, Trenton
• Dan Leslie, Chief, Technical Services, Shilo
• Carol Robinson, Continuous Improvement, Head Office
• Col Rick Chevrier, Senior Manager, Stakeholder and Customer Relations; Acting General Manager, Housing Operations; Member of the Leadership Team; Head Office

Other Stakeholders:

• Mary Chamberlain, Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE)
• Perry Schippers, The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC)

Coordinator

• Peter Lavallée, Director, Policy Coordination and Communications – Champion
• Véronique Julien, Communications Officer

Absent:

• Juliette Gundy, on behalf of the Assistant Deputy Minister (Infrastructure and Environment (ADM[IE])

Committee members also had an opportunity to see and address comments received from the CFHA website employees’ suggestion box (only available on the intranet).

There were several concerns/suggestions received that could not be resolved by the Workplace Assessment Committee. But that did not negate the committee’s consideration of the issues received. For example, concerns were raised with regards to collective agreement issues; work description issues; compressed work week; and staffing. Although received anonymously, these were referred to the Human Resources Section to address. The Committee was advised that a cyclical review of all work descriptions is ongoing. Allowing a compressed work week is dictated by operationally requirements of individual sites.

UNDE appreciates the fact that the members have used the suggestion box to forward their issues. However, as a Labour Representative, I was surprised that these questions were not addressed locally either through Managers or a Local UNDE representative for advice on collective agreement rights and entitlements.

A suggestion about resurrecting the UMCC/LMRC process was received. The CFHA National UMCC has been functioning – the next meeting is scheduled for April 13. Previous minutes are posted on the UNDE website.

Although on hold at this point in time, Local LMRC meetings are held at the Head Office in Ottawa. However, LMRCs are not held in the majority of the remaining sites. UNDE was advised that this is due to the limited number of employees in most sites. UNDE stated that there is no reason why the Base/Wing could not be approached for CFHA to participate at that forum and that under PSMA UMCC/LMRC forums are encouraged wherever possible.

The issue that came to the forefront over and over was the lack of communications – communications up and communications down. The committee developed several proposals that can be implemented in the short term to address some of the suggestions put forward. These will be shared with the CEO to ensure the resources are available to implement the committee’s recommendations.

Conference Call – April 10, 2006

A conference call was held to tie up the loose ends from the April 4 meeting and to discuss perspective medium and longer term initiatives. It is hoped that the official record of discussion will be released this week.

The next conference call is scheduled for May 2006 (possibly the second week).

M.L. Chamberlain
Executive Vice President