MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP, CULTURE AND RECREATION
MINISTRY EMPLOYEE RELATIONS COMMITTEE (MERC)
MEETING MINUTES
Date:
Location:
April 16, 1998
Boardroom 5B, 5th Floor, 77 Bloor Street West, Toronto
FOR THE EMPLOYER:
Diane Phillipson, Co-chair
Ian Wilson
Charles Bouskill
Karen Fritzlar
FOR THE UNION:
Jerry Corriveau, Co-chair
Don Jeanneault
Larry Curley
Mary Ellen Casey - OPSEU
Sue Morrison
Guests:
Naomi Alboim, Deputy Minister
Kevin French, Director, Corporate Resources Branch
Denise Olubick, Human Resources Consultant
AGENDA ITEMS
Opening Comments by CoChairs
DISCUSSION
Ms. Phillipson welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Ian Wilson,
Archivist of Ontario to the committee as the new member for Management. Ms.
Phillipson also welcomed Charles Bouskill to his first full meeting as a
management member.
Ms. Phillipson also announced that as the Director of Corporate Resources
Branch, Kevin French would assume the Co-Chair role effective the next meeting.
As this would be her last meeting, Ms. Phillipson thanked the committee for
making her tenure as Co-Chair a very rewarding experience and noted that
everyone conducted themselves in a very professional manner, which made
serving on the committee a pleasure.
Mr. Corriveau also welcomed Sue Morrison as union member to the committee
Mr. Corriveau noted that elections had taken place recently and the MERC team
had been re-elected. The coming years priorities for the OPSEU MERC are as
follows:
1) Bargaining Units Overhaul
2) Communications
3) Health and Safety
4) Area Employee Relations Committees
5) Training and development
ACTION REQUIRED
Kevin French will become member for the
employer and Co-Chair effective
June 23-98
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AGENDA ITEMS
DISCUSSION
2)Minutes of previous
meeting
The minutes were reviewed and accepted as written.
3) Internal Administration
Project update
Kevin French provided an update on I.A.P.
Mail messenger: The option to consolidate mail and print operations in the
Queen's Park Vicinity is still under consideration along with other options. All
ministries with mailrooms and print shops are being included in the discussion of
the various options. Decisions with respect to mail and print services will be based
on the merits of the option which best meets the business needs of the ministry
and its internal clients, and is in keeping with the OPS' future direction for internal
business support. It was noted that clients of ministry’s Office Services Unit
continue to report high customer satisfaction. At this time, no final decision on the
restructuring of these services has been made. Bargaining agents and staff will be
advised of key decisions with respect to mail and print services once the details
are finalized and approved by Management Board and Cabinet.
Mary-Ellen Casey remarked that she had great concerns regarding the mail
messenger situation. She expressed her hope that this ministry would not
participate in a shared service arrangement. She felt that there had to be a better
way of serving the ministry's needs without disenfranchising its most vulnerable
employees.
Kevin French provided an update to the committee
Regional Delivery Restructuring is part of the Service Delivery Strategy. Other
partners include ServiceOntario (MTO); Government online (MBS) and Ontario
Business Connects (MCCR) The project is being led by Celia Fairclough of
Management Board Secretariat. Management Board of Cabinet has approved 61
service centre communities and we are currently looking at 17 pilot sites. Regional
Delivery Restructuring has five building blocks, which begin with co-location and
move through to common counters, then shared administration shared
management and finally shared staff/programs. The goal is to have a "Government
of Ontario" presence in a community offering customers improved services by
1999 including 61 designated service centres providing integrated front counter
services; common shared counters where other field offices are co-located; and
provide effective information and referral services provided from all field offices.
The Deputy Minister spent some time with the committee talking about the Ministry
and the Minister. The Minister has done a superb job in getting visibility for the
ministry. She played a very important role during the estimates process,
supported by ministry staff who did a great job in preparing the material needed to
get us through the process. The Deputy Minister also confirmed that we would be
moving out of 77 Bloor Street when our lease expires in July 1999. Ministry staff
are working with ORC in hopes of seeking a downtown location. She confirmed
that Downsview is not being considered. The Deputy discussed the business
planning process and would like to hear comments from staff on the process, what
4) Print/Mail Room Services
5) Shared Services and
regional restructuring
Update
6) Ministry Update
ACTION REQUIRED
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AGENDA ITEMS
7) Bargaining Units
Overhaul update
8) April 2, 1998 Adjustments
9) Area Relations
Committees
10) Grievance report
11) OPSEU -AMAPCEO
Criteria
12) Health & Safety
13) Other Business
14)
DISCUSSION
works and what doesn't work. Mr. Corriveau asked the Deputy to comment on the
Coopers and Lybrand report on OPS restructuring. The Deputy replied that
although they developed a number of options and approaches, the government is
now moving forward on an incremental approach, for example, we are seeing
common counters and co-locations of ministries.
In response to a question on shared services by the union the Deputy replied that
the idea of shared services has been approved in principle only. We will continue
to provide our own services until a full implementation plan is developed which
minimizes any impacts. Our own Corporate Services are doing a fabulous job.
Denise Olubick updated the committee on the Ministries progress on the BUO
project. Drafted job specs are about 91% complete to-date and employees have
been or will be asked to review and comment on their job description.
The HR team has done a blitz on job evaluation.
The team started with the Administrative Bargaining Unit, where many of our
ministry jobs are concentrated, and have about 80% evaluated so far. We will be
evaluating all jobs in the Office Administration Bargaining Unit next. It is expected
that we will be able to mover faster through this group, as there are more common
job families.
Diane Phillipson updated the committee on the April 2 nd reductions. Staff that
received letters of surplus notice had all chosen options.
Larry Curly advised the committee that there were no issues to pass on to MERC.
With the changes in the Northeast area a question arose regarding the local
committee for the Northeast area. The Manager, Elaine Lynch will review.
The union provided management with a list of grievances that were attributed to
the Ministry for review and comment.
The Union asked management what criteria has been used to classify jobs into
AMAPCEO or OPSEU and why were some jobs that were similar are in both
bargaining units. Ms. Phillipson explained how jobs are reviewed and evaluated.
She talked about the history of classification in the OPS and the review of CECBA
which changed the criteria for exclusion; of how the parties agreed on what jobs
would remain in MCP, those transferred to AMAPCEO and which jobs would stay
in OPSEU. The parties signed an agreement that none of the reviewed jobs would
be challenged. A process was established centrally to handle challenges from
positions outside of the agreed to lists that the union(s) wished to challenge.
Larry Curly raised the issue of stress and how some of the issues could be
handled. A suggestion was that some training could be provided to staff to be able
to better handle workload stressors.
Management asked for an updated list of Union stewards for the Ministry.
Next meetings. It was agreed that the next two meetings would be held on
Tuesday, June 23rd and Tuesday October 20th.
ACTION REQUIRED
No outstanding issues
Management would invite Terry Bisset to a
future meeting
Mary-Ellen Casey offered to forward a list to
Human Resources.
Next meeting chair - Jerry Corriveau.
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Next Meeting Scheduled for: Tuesday, June 23rd, 1998
Meeting chair: Jerry Corriveau
Original signed by Diane Phillipson
Original signed by Jerry Corriveau
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For the Employer
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For the Union
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Date
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Date
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