UNDE - Report on CFHA UMCC May 17, 2004

CFHA WORKPLACE ACTION COMMITTEE

REPORT OF INAGURAL MEETING – 9 FEBRUARY 2006

I have been appointed by the UNDE National President to represent UNDE from a national perspective at the CFHA Workplace Action Committee – the joint committee established to implement the CFHA Workplace Assessment. As the process starts to unfold in the workplaces, I would encourage Vice Presidents and Local Representatives to make contact with both the members and the Managers at the CFHA locations across Canada. In fact, it would be beneficial for the UNDE Locals to establish a point of contact within the members employed at CFHA so that UNDE can play an informed and active role at all levels of the organization to ensure this process is a success.

The first meeting of the subject committee was conducted by teleconference today. Members are the committee are: Representing CFHA employees:

Other Stakeholders:

In his opening remarks Mr Alain Bastarache, the new CEO CFHA, spoke of the organization’s commitment to the findings and implementation of the recommendations of the workplace assessment. He thanked all the committee members for volunteering to participate on the committee and stressed how important the committee’s role would be in overseeing the success of the implementation.

Mr Lavallée was introduced as the CFHA Champion of the implementation of the recommendations. In his opening remarks, he echoed Mr Bastarache’s comments of commitment.

The union representatives asked why there was no representation from the Human Resources (HR) Community on the committee. The unions expressed concern that the committee could come up with [and agree on] ideas only to find out that under some policy or directive, the implementation of those ideas was not possible. The CEO left the decision up to the committee on whether an HR representative was required. It was decided that a HR representative would be invited to attend on an as-required basis.

The following agenda was accepted (I have filled in specific comments with the agenda item for ease of reference):

Mandate and objectives of the Action Committee:

Suggested mandate statement: The Workplace Assessment Action Committee will develop an action plan that addresses issues and builds on strengths highlighted in the Workplace Assessment report.
Suggested objectives: Over the next fiscal year, the Action Committee will identify achievable short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives and milestones.

The committee discussed that the implementation plan and objectives must include a monitoring mechanism in order to ensure consistency across the organization. The committee was reminded that different sites may have different needs, but in the end the committee agreed that everyone must be delivering the same message.

Key components of the Action Plan:

The unions expressed that communications should be the immediate and key element of making this process work. CFHA employees are already sceptical of Management’s true commitment to the process. Employees view the workplace assessment as just another review that will be lost with time or lip service. To make the process work, CFHA will need their employees to first believe and accept that Management is committed and then, for the employees to take ownership of the process and have trust enough to participate.

Means of Communications were discussed. A regular “newsletter” was well supported, but it was mentioned that this was suggested in the past and fell short for lack of resources; another idea was the use of the website. The committee agreed that regardless how communications were shared, the information and message had to be consistent. It was decided that information “out” would come from [or be coordinated by] the CFHA Corporate level - Mr Lavallée.

Various forms of providing feedback and constructive suggestions into the Workplace Assessment Action Committee were discussed. The committee discussed the lack of trust in some worksites and that employees might not be forthcoming with comments for fear of retaliation. This lead to the discussion about other feedback options: an anonymous website “suggestion box”; an “open door” policy whereby an employee could send an email to one of the committee members; or that an employee/union member could send their comments to their respective union representative.

It was decided that while the committee would like to establish trust and open communications at the lower levels of the CFHA organization, this might not be possible at this point in time at all locations. The committee felt that the need for employee feedback was more important than the “chain of command” at the onset of the process.

Another idea that was discussed was how to get everyone to understand what everyone does and how everyone fits into the workplace? For example, an inspector would sit in with a customer service representative and observe what they do. And the customer service representative would accompany the inspector to see what they do. The committee agreed that this was a good idea but that it would take coordination so as not to add an additional workload on any individual.

Other communication tools discussed were: Monthly email updates from Workplace Assessment Champion; Dedicated section on the Employee Corner.

It was also agreed that short-term objectives will lead to ideas about longer term objectives.

I offer these discussion points as information only to prompt ideas and suggestions from the members. NO decisions were made today, it was a brainstorming session. The consensus of the committee was that everyone would develop a list of short-term objectives to bring back to the next meeting. National Executive and membership input is welcomed and encouraged.

Next meeting: April 4, 2006 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Goals: To agree on milestones and objectives; To agree on specific short-term deliverables; To bring forward ideas.

In Solidarity,

[Submitted electronically]

M.L. Chamberlain
Executive Vice President