Information Management Services (IMS)
The IMS bilateral meetings were held on January 16, November 5, and December 17.
- Talent Management & Skills Inventory - we have been insisting on inclusion of the union in any work on these issues and that full consultation occurs. Progress has been slow in making inroads with management and discussions are occurring at the Commissioner's table. We believe that supporting an employee to achieve their objectives is an asset for the organization. A redesign of this program should allow the employee and the organization to grow together. PIPSC believes that members should be able to plan their career and that management's role is to enable this, to the benefit of both the employee and the organization.
Currently, there is no transparency in this process - members cannot see the overall skills inventory that exists within IMS nor is the Talent Management a transparent process to members. - IT Classification Standard - all CS positions are to be compared to the new standard; work descriptions must be up-to-date. A deck was shown and we discussed the fact that there needs to be ongoing and meaningful consultation prior to any final decisions in CSC.
- Work descriptions - Employer meeting planned in January to discuss these, based on the work performed by Bob Dobos’s 2018 committee on WD clarification in preparations for IT Classification Standards (TBS CIO suite). There was no consultation with PIPSC on this.
- Training and Professional Development (PD) - we continue to push for fairness and consistency in the allocation of training monies. Highlighted the changes to the CS contract that entitles each employee to at least one PD activity per year.
- Travel caps - This was brought up with IMS and then at the NLMC with the Commissioner. PIPSC ran a survey showing that 50% of CS’s in CSC have been denied training due to travel caps and/or budgets. The results have been shared with the Commissioner and talks are ongoing.
- Consultants and Contracting Out - we continue to demand that CS work is performed by employees whenever possible and expect a rationale behind all contracted work. We informed the commissioner that we do not agree with departments doing an end run around contracting out by substituting Casuals instead.
- RRS - We have questioned the relevance of this application for non-project work.
- Evaluation tools for PMP - the National objectives do not reflect the reality of work for all CS’s, particularly for ones who work within CSC operational units.
- Joint Learning Program (JLP) - PIPSC suggested earlier this year that the CIO & Senior IMS management participate in Consultation training along with consultation team members through the JLP. In further conversations with the Senior Deputy Commissioner it was indicated that this was a good idea. We will be looking at this in 2020 and feel it will definitely help all participants in having meaningful consultation.
- SIU Project: We presented our concerns about the SIU project implementation. The employer states the SIU project was a success and will consider if it is necessary to do a lessons learned. PIPSC stated that while it was a technical success - the project planning aspects were clumsy and poorly orchestrated. We maintain this is because IMS chose to contract out the management of this project. The contractors had no knowledge or understanding of how CSC operates and were not able to establish cooperative relationships with the CS community. It is not the job of our members to teach Management & contractors how to implement a project in CSC. In having to do so, this created immense pressures on our members at the institutions implementing SIU units.
The consultation team formally requested that in future projects, our members be offered the assignments necessary to bring projects to completion. Otherwise, what purpose does Talent Management & Skills Inventory serve? See above TM & SI.