Record of Decision – SMSM Special Meeting between Service Canada and CEIU – December14, 2009

Webcims # 2010 HR-NHQ 001176

RECORD OF DECISION

Service Management Structural Model (SMSM)

Special Meeting between Service Canada (SC) and

the Canadian Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU)

Meeting held on Monday, December 14, 2009

In Attendance
Co-Chairs
Nicole Barbeau, Senior ADM,
Service Management, Service Canada / Jeannette Meunier-McKay, National President
Management Representatives / Union Representatives
Gina Rallis
ADM – Human Resources Services Branch / Steve McCuaig
National Executive Vice-President
Liliane Binette
ADM – Operations / Nicole Ma
National Vice-President
Human Rights (ON)
Andy Netzel, EHSM – BC/YT/AB/NWT/NU / Jacques Perrin
National Vice-President Headquarter (QC)
Ken Burfoot, EHSM – Sask/Man / Denise Richey
National Vice-President (NFLD)
Louise Branch EHSM – Maritimes Region / Donna MacDonald
National Vice-President (PEI)
Michael Alexander EHSM – NFLD & Labrador / Theresa MacInnis
National Vice-President (NS)
Mary Ann Triggs, Sr. Executive Director, Strategic Services (on behalf of H. Green, EHSM Ontario Region) / Deborah Gray
National Vice-President (NB)
Claudine Lachapelle, Executive Director, Strategic Services (on behalf of D. Bouliane, EHSM Québec Region) / Doris Giguère
National Vice-President (QC)
Maureen Grant, HR Enterprise Services / Francine Vézina
National Vice-President (QC)
Marc Bellefeuille
National Vice-President (QC)
Valerie Fargey
National Vice-President (ON)
Jacqueline Wheway-Bacon
National Vice-President (ON)
Jan Liberty
National Vice-President (ON)
Don Rogers
National Vice-President (MB)
Noreen Klassen
National Vice-President (SK)
Sandy MacDonald
National Vice-President (AB)
Pat Wakefield
National Vice-President (BC)
Linda Wilcox
National Vice-President (NFLD)
Colleen Fagon
National Vice-President HQ/Ontario Women’s Issues (ON)
Huguette Breton
National Vice-President Québec Women’s Issues (QC)
Dianne Mitchell
National Vice-President (BC)
Norm Murray
National Vice-President – IRB
Yvonne Jarvis-Bynoe
National Vice-President – CIC
Luc Pomerleau
National Resource Officer
Sue Couchaine
Executive Secretary
Alan Lennon
Coordinator
Regrets
Charles Nixon, ADM – Citizen Services
Peter Simeoni, ADM – Integrity Services
Howard Green, EHSM - Ontario Region
Denis Bouliane, EHSM - Québec Region
Presenters / Observers / UMCC Secretariat
Davinderpaul Kanwal
André Bertrand
Sylvie St-Arnaud
ITEM / SUBJECT / ACTION / DECISION /
1. / WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS (N. Barbeau – J. Meunier-McKay)
Nicole Barbeau welcomes everyone to the meeting and thanks everyone for taking the time from their busy schedule to be here today.
Ms. Barbeau proceeds to present the objectives for the meeting so everyone has a common understanding of the expected outcome of the day:
o  Have an open dialogue:
o  Commitment from both management and union to work collaboratively towards the wellbeing of the employees.
o  Share information:
o  Listen on both sides.
o  Find common solutions.
o  Understand that the organization has changed:
o  Working as an enterprise-wide organization.
o  Challenges for next year (2010).
o  Open discussion on pre-occupations for on enterprise-wide org.
She also indicates that at the end of the day, that there will be an evaluation of the meeting to obtain views on what went well, what needs improvement, and the possibility similar meetings in the future.
Ms. Barbeau then introduces her co-chair, Jeannette Meunier-McKay, National President (CEIU). Ms. Meunier-McKay welcomes everyone to Ottawa and mentions that this is a first meeting, that it should be productive and that she is looking forward to future meetings. She adds that this meeting is in the best interest of SC employees and invites everyone to open and honest dialogue toward common objective and common goal.
Ms. Barbeau proceeds with the review of the agenda. She mentions that item 6 & 7 are both related to Employment Insurance (EI) and as such suggests they be addressed together by Liliane Binette. The agenda is approved with no additional items.

2.

/ ROUND-TABLE INTRODUCTIONS (All)
/ Ms. Barbeau invites everyone to introduce themselves.

3.

/ HRSDC INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLAN – 2010-2011 (N. Barbeau)
Ms. Barbeau provides participants with an overview of the Departments Integrated Business Plan for 2010-2011. This includes information on the progress made with respect to the implementation of service delivery strategies and initiatives aimed at addressing impacts of the economic downturn and Budget 2009 measures. She takes this opportunity to mention that the current environment has made this year a very busy one, for all services area within Service Canada (from policy to service delivery). She provides statistical information (KPI): EI claims which currently number around 3.8 million for the current year (3.1 million in 2008); The speed of payment which averages at 80-82% since April 2009; The hiring of 3,200 new employees; work-sharing; SMSM - 95% implemented with success; Spike-Centres; Joint Rapid Response, etc. She congratulates everyone; employees, union and managers for their hard work and contribution towards the department’s success in delivering on Economic Action Plan (EAP) measures, as well as other initiatives implemented.
Ms. Barbeau speaks about SC’s operating environment over the short and medium terms, and mentions Government priorities related to the economic recovery, support to high priority/impact initiatives (H1N1), emerging priorities, etc. She adds that the number of EI claims for next year is still not known as it depends on the unemployment rate. She speaks about the continued focus on service delivery and service excellence, the changing socio-economic trends and client expectations i.e. the aging population and what it means for CPP/OAS – facilitate access to services; younger generation and their use of SMS/Twitter to access services and the need for the organization to make better use of these types of tools, etc.
She adds that the organization’s financial capacity, within the context of restraint for the whole of Government, at this time and what it will mean in terms of impact is still unknown. She mentions however, that the Department’s main priority (IBP’s focus) remains excellence in everything we do.
Ms. Barbeau indicates that the Integrated Business Planning exercise 2010-2011 has taken senior management through a priority-setting and business planning process in October, that will result in a departmental-wide business plan by March 2010 that will outline/define the initiatives that will be put in place for the coming year. This will be shared with everyone once finalized.

4.

/ UPDATE – Service management structural model implementation plan (SMSM) (N. Barbeau – L. Branch)
Nicole Barbeau invites Louise Branch to provide the update on SMSM to participants. Ms. Branch mentions that an important thing to remember when discussing SMSM, is the overarching human resources strategy and culture of excellence. She refers to the dimensions of the strategy which includes six (6)”planks” which have been articulated over the last year and geared towards a service organisation. She speaks to the roles and competencies and what needs to be developed; standardized training and certification process, performance management model and the Rework and Recognition Program. She moves on to provide an overview of the implementation status of SMSM and indicates that 98% of EX and PM-6 positions have been implemented with the remainder to be completed shortly; Statement of Merit Criteria are established; Career Progression Model/Career Management will be drafted - a lot of different aspects to career progressions, currently looking at it from a comprehensive perspective – learning continuum, giving people opportunities for acting, etc. (winter 2009). She provides some details with respect to SMSM agenda forward and related timelines and adds that the organization is striving toward a full implementation of SMSM by the end of this Fiscal Year.
5. / SMSM – UPDATE ON GRIEVANCES (L. Branch)
Louise Branch outlines the SMSM Grievance strategy and provides context around the types of grievances that have been filed at the same time i.e. Job Content, Acting Pay, and Classification, and related numbers. She mentions that 5203 grievances are to be processed, of which 4301 are job content, and 902 are acting pay grievances. She adds that an MOU between CEIU-PSAC and Management was signed in October 2008 (J. Meunier-McKay & Steve McCuaig were involved at the time) to work collaboratively to resolve grievances, which were brought at 3rd level from the beginning. She mentions that a union-management working group was also struck some time ago to work on defining the way ahead on job content grievances. Several meetings have already taken place and S. McCuaig is actively involved in this working group. She then addresses the approach for Job content grievances and indicates that the hearings for the 14 generics grieved under SMSM will be conducted using a top down and suite of family approach. She mentions that the format used to consult with employees will consist of National Union Representatives (NUR’s) 1 or 2 per work description, Working Group (WG) 14, Employee Representatives (ER’s) 3-5/WG. As it relates to Job Content Grievances, she provides an outline of the approach taken and related timelines. She mentions that right after today’s meeting, management and union will sit together to draft e-mail to be sent to all employees that grieved soliciting interest in participating in consultation on grievances (to be sent in January). She adds that management is anxious to answer these grievances and that it can’t be 10 years down the road to solve these grievances.
She mentions that there are a number of things to look at with respect to this issue and one of them is how to keep the structural model fresh, given new activities. Do we have the roles right? What are the issues? Working on priorities, etc. The need to put in place a system for unique needs to exist, that jobs are properly assessed and reviewed in order to allow the organization to meet expectations. We also are dealing with a classification system that is dated, however we have to work with what we have; compare remuneration in the organization with what exists out in other departments (relativity) and the private sector, in order to give appropriate value for the work, etc.
6.
7. / ECONOMIC ACTION PLAN – EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE (N. Barbeau)
UPDATE – EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WORKLOAD (L. Binette)
Nicole Barbeau indicates that she had provided highlights of the Economic Action Plan important trends and impacts earlier this morning and that she suggests that items 6 and 7 be addressed at the same time. She invites Liliane Binette to address participants on the Employment Insurance Workload, as well as CPP/OAS.
Ms. Binette starts off by saying she proposes an overview of payments and processes for CPP/OAS (specifics around workload). What is happening with the implementation of the new Canada Pension Plan Information Technology Renewal Delivery System (ITRDS), which is a major project launched in May 2009. This project aims to modernize some processes, simplify what we are doing in areas where we can work with technology (in the world working with technology/electronic files, we need to think through information, so we don’t ask the same information from clients many times). This means taking data from the old legacy system and transferring it to the new system. Month after month, the department is making extremely good progress (below 800 payments (now) vs. over 3000 applications which needed to be reviewed back in June). ITRDS is on the radar, updates are done on a weekly basis (data analysis), year end (T4) is approaching and we want to ensure the transfer to ITRDS goes smoothly so that information on T4 is accurate (amounts, address, etc.). There are other issues that surface as we implement and we need to correct these as they arise.
With regard to Call Centres, a meeting with Jeanette Meunier-McKay took place and a commitment was made to get back to her on specific challenges. As for OAS, this will be undertaken in a different manner. Employees are telling us that there is a duplication of information tree-quarters of the time for one client. As a result, a small team (regional participation) is currently mapping how the process is today, toward the ideal process in the future. Once transaction processes is standardized, then ITRDS will be implemented for OAS (3 year plan for completion). As we do this, from a client continuum perspective/employer perspective, we still aim to respond to demands at the first point of contact. It is also extremely important to engage those doing the work, as employees own the process, to make the implementation of ITRDS successful.
In the short term perspective, funding pressures have an impact on our employees (workload situations, longer delays in implementation of phases, etc.). However, we still have been able to get funding to finish the year to deal with important pieces of the workload.
With respect to Employment Insurance, the year has been an exceptional year (started in Oct. 08) and by the end of March 2009, the organization had received 500 000 more EI requests. As a result, the department went to TBS for money, developed a strategy to hire staff to deal with increase in the number of demands across the country. Hiring took place between May and August and necessitated working together as a team, across EI and multiple sectors. The organization hired over 3000 people for in-person services, i.e. selection process/training and results were fantastic. From a client perspective, 30% of claims within the last 18 months were from workers who had no previous need for EI (not seasonal workers). Pressures on regions/staff existed and the statistics clearly demonstrate the increase in the workload. She adds that she has reported to the Parliamentary Committee eight times since June of this year. To date, the speed of payment year-to-date is at 82.9% - results are great, and adds that the organization is going in the right direction, with continuous improvement/simplification where possible. For the future, she adds that we need to focus on one strategy (look at a national workload approach). She mentions discussions with EHSM’s, which took place the week before, to ensure that we consider all as one workload and put forward an implementation plan (with incremental approach) and take the time to do it right.
She then addresses Employer Contact Centres and indicates that each part of the organisation deals with employers in one way or another. She adds that employers are confused about services and don’t know where to go. The organisation needs to provide seamless services. EI/CPP/OAS have all gone through lots of changes. Almost 1/3 of the Economic Action Plan initiatives were delivered by EI and it is not over yet. She provides the example of EI, for which data is kept for 7 years currently, with the new approach, we will need to keep a lifetime of data. She indicates that once citizens receive benefits, they will be in the system for ever.