CEPACC Membership Bulletin – Oct CIF Update

Published by vagrant at October 28, 2013

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CEPACC Membership Bulletin

October 2013

Common Interest Forum Update

The Common Interest Forum last met on October 16 & 17, 2013. The following is a summary of our discussions.

CST Pool Employees: The process for Pool employees to be eligible for job postings was reviewed. Pool employees require 3000 hours of work in the pool and a satisfactory performance review to qualify on a posting. The Pool employee’s reviews are not done at the same time as the rest of the unionized workforce so how is it determined what review was their ‘Jan/Feb’ review? It was agreed that Pool Employees will receive a review after working 1040 hours and an annual review will be completed which will be the one used when being considered for job postings.

Pool Tech Vacation: Pool Techs receive 4% of pay in lieu of vacation for the 1^st year ofIn the 2^nd year, they receive 2 weeks of vacation which is pro-rated based on how many months are left in the calendar year. The CIF discussed the possibility of Pool Techs receiving 3 weeks of vacation after the 2^nd year of employment. The company has taken that away for consideration.

Charlottetown Pool Techs Training: When there are two new Pool Techs to a vehicle, who is training them? Regional Services reviewed the situation and it was determined that all Pool Techs are properly trained. Local 401 will monitor it to ensure the training is complete.

MOA Vote: There was brief discussion around the rejection of the MOA. The company expressed disappointment that an opportunity was missed to keep more of the CSR work in-house. However, contractors have been doing this work for some time and where there is any further requirement, the work will be done by contractors.

Business Update: The company presented a business update informing the CIF of competitors offers vs Bell Aliant offers; ability to port out; home security; Rogers new CEO.

Retention Incentive: The retention incentive was implemented as a trial to the end of 2013 pending a vote to establish it into the collective agreement. When the MOA was rejected, the retention incentive went with it. The agents in the retention queue were told, in error, that they would not receive their incentive for the 3rd quarter. However, they will receive it based on everyone achieving their targets. The Council was provided with the calculations of the incentive. The incentive for the retention group has now ended.

Remote Call Monitoring: It was suspended for 2013 because the company required the CSRs to be in the queue. The company intends to resume Remote Call Monitoring in the new year.

Contractor FTE’s Update: The target for contractor numbers for the end of 2013 is 90 FTE’s. In August, there were 101 contractor FTE’s. The company is on track to reach the committed target by year’s end.

Rural Ratio Update: The rural ratio as of Sept 30, 2010 was set at 18:1 and continues to be the target. The ratio between employees doing CST, BST, NT or CT repair work outside of the 10 cities and contractor FTE’s, as of August, 2013 is 20:1.

Pool Ratio: The Pool ratio is set at 50% of the combined # of CSTs with reporting centres in the ten cities. As of Aug, 2013 the Pool ratio is 30%.

Joint Consultative Update: Penny provided a report of the last Joint Consultative Meeting. Items discussed at the Joint Consultative included: a) Regular Updates for: CIF, Fibre, Contact Centre, Excessive Hours of Work Trending, Systems Performance & Finance; b) Labour Relations Training Update; c) Unifor Presentation; d) Cost of medical forms; e) AWT Estimates; f) Contracting Out Notification Article 4.07; g) Changes to Telesales/SAS Team; h) United Way-Branding of Unifor; i) Reassignment forms process.

Job Evaluation: The sub-committee is continuing to meet and will report back to the entire CIF when the analysis of the data is complete.

Common Interest Forum: There was discussion around the process and how we improve communication and de-mystify CIF for the members and managers. These types of bulletins will continue and we will issue one soon after each CIF session. As well, there are currently, 1 day IBN Training sessions taking place all over Atlantic Canada over the next few months. Union stewards, committee members, executive officers and managers are invited to attend. This is joint training facilitated by Industrial Relations and the Local Union Presidents. The training is interactive and presents how a collaborative relationship can work when negotiating a collective agreement, holding a grievance meeting and in everyday life.

Dec 31, 2014: There was some preliminary discussion around the expiry of the collective agreement in a little more than a year. We informed the company that we are in the process of requesting Issues/Bargaining Proposals from our membership and are planning an Issues Caucus with all the local’s union leadership in April 2014.

The next CIF meeting is scheduled for Dec 11 & 12, 2013.

In solidarity,

Penny Fawcett Phil Briffett

Lynn Briggs Bobby MacDonald

Joyclin Coates Mary Croke

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