REPORT OF VICE-PRESIDENT STEVE HINDLE
Presented to the 98th Annual General Meeting
I continue to be involved in many areas of the Institute but this report will concentrate on only three of those. My general philosophy is that I’m in this position to assist the President and I take my direction from her. While I provide her with advice from the perspective of my several decades of experience in the Institute and the federal public service she provides me with general guidance as well as specific tasks.
NEW BRUNSWICK
I continue to be the political lead for issues related to the Institute members who work for the Province of New Brunswick (the Board of Management) and the New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission. Since last year’s report, the members of the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Group continued their quest for a fair and equitable collective agreement. This included preparation for the possibility of taking strike action. In the end, a tentative agreement, with an expiry date of September 30, 2018, was reached and it was ratified by the membership. While the training and plans were not put into action the exercise did provide many active members with a better understanding of the amount of effort that is needed in advance of taking strike action. On the pension front, several legal actions challenging the provincial government’s authority to make drastic, unilateral, and detrimental changes to the pension plan for our provincial members continue to wind their way through the legal system. From the outset we expected this to be a protracted battle and I’m sorry to say that our expectations are being met. We were pleased to welcome the Canadian Union of Public Employees as an intervener on the legal action initiated by the Institute.
CONSULTATION
Work on the establishment of a Consultation Secretariat proceeded slowly due to a number of factors. The goal is to provide co-ordination of the activities of the National Consultation Teams. Integrating these will maximize the President’s availability to meet with the most senior officials of federal departments and separate employers. This will allow for a clear and consistent national message to be delivered to the highest levels of the bureaucracy and will reinforce the Institute’s commitment to meaningful consultation on a wide range of issues. Issues associated with the implementation of recently ratified collective agreements will provide a tangible focus for these activities.
INTERNAL MATTERS
Issues in this area continue to absorb a considerable amount of my time and energy. Activities such as contributing to preparations for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) provide a wonderful opportunity to work with a diverse group of people from many parts of the organization. Unfortunately, this area of my involvement also includes dealing with conflict amongst members. Inter-personal conflict amongst very active members is becoming far too common. The Institute has, on more than one occasion, enlisted the services of a mediator in order to work with members in an attempt to regularize relationships so that the business of the Institute could continue. This has resulted in only limited success and, as a result, there is more and more activity through the more formal channels of our Dispute Resolution and Discipline Policy. It is disheartening for me to admit that the Board of Directors appears to be leading by example in this area.
Steve Hindle, Vice-President