News - August 2010                 Previous Month         Following Month

Headlines of the current month's news items are listed immediately below. Click on the headline of your choice to see the entire text of the article.

Meet our July ‘Rand’ sign-up contest winner…

Our Social Justice Fund Committee approves funding support for four projects

AAFC EG Review – Response letters should now be in the hands of the grievors

Meet our July ‘Rand’ sign-up contest winner…

(Posted August 5, 2010)

Congratulations to Jacqueline Dallaire! Jacqueline is the latest monthly winner in our 2010 contest to sign up ‘Rands’, dues-paying co-workers who, for one reason or another, have yet to sign a union card.

Jacqueline is a newly-signed-up member of Local 5, which represents our Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada members in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Welcome to the Agriculture Union, Jacqueline!

Our Social Justice Fund Committee approves funding support for four projects

(Posted August 4, 2010)

The Agriculture Union Committee that oversees our Social Justice Fund has approved funding for a new overseas project and continued backing of three worthy projects in Nova Scotia.

Sadly, the world’s gaze has already slipped from Haiti in the aftermath of last winter’s devastating earthquake in what remains the poorest country in the western hemisphere. So our SJF Committee was particularly pleased to support an effort that will both provide agricultural skills to hundreds of Haitian youth while improving overall crop production and providing badly-needed jobs.

The project, originated by the Fondation Paradis des Indiens, will see an agronomist and an agricultural officer train and supervise some 500 youth in the growth and harvest of vegetables and grains on renewed, irrigated land. The project will also provide work and generate revenue for the women of a food processing association once the harvest has been dried.

The project will contribute to the public's appreciation of the value and importance of agriculture in the Haitian economy and will elevate the status of farmers amongst the general population. The outcomes of this particular project will be extended to another 11 schools operated by the Fondation.

It is always a pleasure to renew funding for projects that have proven their value to the communities they serve. Such is the case for three Halifax-area projects that our Social Justice Fund has supported for the past several years. They are:
          • the Breakfast Program for the hungry at Hope Cottage;
          • preparation of gift packages for individuals and families at homeless shelters in the Halifax-Dartmouth

                 area; and
          • Operation Christmas Child, Africa that ships hundreds of shoeboxes filled with useful basic essentials to

                 improve the lives of hundreds of deserving African orphans.

As always, Agriculture Union members can learn more about the specific projects backed by our SJF by clicking HERE.

AAFC EG Review – Response letters should now be in the hands of the grievors

(Posted August 2, 2010)

Our EG members at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada who filed Statement of Duties/Work Description (WD) and Acting Pay grievances should now have received response letters from the employer. We are very disappointed in the responses since they do not include the rationale for the decision rendered. This is contrary to the agreement we reached with AAFC at the outset of the EG Review Process. The rationale was to be included so that employees would understand the reasoning behind the decision to not allow or partially allow their grievances. We will be following up with the Employer on this breakdown in process and will be updating the membership on our discussions.

In the meantime, as noted in the Employer’s grievance response letters, employees can contact their respective Research Managers to clarify and address any outstanding issues. Retirees should also contact their former Research Manager. We are recommending grievors take advantage of this opportunity. When meeting with the Research Managers, grievors should request a written rationale detailing the reasons for the employer's decision not to include the duties and responsibilities requested and/or to deny acting pay retroactive to the date requested.

Should the Research Manager not provide a written rationale, grievors should take detailed notes of the explanations and justifications provided by the Research Manager. Members are also encouraged to ask specific questions to ensure they understand all the reasons for management's decision in respect of their grievances.

Employees who have had their grievances allowed or partially allowed should thoroughly review their new Statement of Duties/Work Descriptions (WD) to ensure the missing duties and responsibilities are indeed included in the WD. If there are still significant duties and responsibilities missing, employees should not sign the new WD. They should provide our National Office with a detailed list of the outstanding duties and responsibilities to be included in the WD.

If the grievors are satisfied with the changes made to their WD and it is deemed complete and accurate, they should sign the WD and return it to their supervisor. It will then be sent for classification and you can expect to receive a classification decision in due course. Please ensure that you keep a copy of the signed work description for your files.

Once a meeting has taken place and the employee has considered all the information exchanged, we ask each grievor to advise our National Office at gauthic@psac.com if they wish to continue with their grievance(s) or if they wish to withdraw.

For those members who wish to continue with their grievance(s), please ensure you provide us with the information and documentation gathered during your meeting with your Research Manager. This information is essential for your grievance file(s). In the event, you decide not to pursue your grievance(s), your e-mail should state the following: "I withdraw my work description grievance #__________ and/or acting pay grievance #___________ ."

In the Q&A which accompanies each grievance response, the employer refers to the deadline date of September 30th 2010 agreed upon by the union and the employer to proceed to the final level. When this was discussed, it was clearly understood that the employer’s response would be provided with a rationale supporting the employer’s decision. Since this is not the case, we will be establishing a more realistic timeline with the Employer.

Please note there is no requirement for employees to transmit their grievances to the final level. The grievance timelines have been protected and the grievances are currently at the final level. No further action is required in this regard by our members.

We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of our membership in providing us with the necessary time to review the grievance files and documentation forwarded to our attention following meetings with the Research Managers. Please be assured once we are able to do so, we will be contacting the grievors accordingly.

We will continue to keep the membership informed of developments as they occur.