The meeting was chaired by Mustafa Cicekci, Local 599 (Ministry of
Community and Social Services) and David Rapaport, Local 503 (Ministry of
Education). About 35 people were in attendance. Cameron Walker, Supervisor of
the OPSEU Grievance Section and Terry Downey, Region 5 Vice President were in
attendance.
1. Previous Activities:
Mustafa and David gave an update of the previous activities of the working
group:
- The working group attended the information session given by MBS to all
systems staff in May 2000 in Toronto concerning the first of nine stages
of the infrastructure project. Our impact resulted in a meeting with
Michael Jordan, CIO of the Corporate Infrastructure.
- Mustafa and David met with Michael Jordan in an informal meeting in
July, 2000.
- Meeting with the OPSEU Executive Committee in November to sanction the
working group. The executive committee gave the group authority to speak
to Management Board on behalf of the Systems Officers, other IT workers
and OPSEU. The Executive Board of OPSEU ratified this in January, 2001.
- Meeting with Scott Campbell, Corporate Chief Information Officer of the
OPS in February, 2001. The working group dealt with three issues;
privatization of IT services, particularly in relation to the IT
infrastructure; contracting out of the work of Systems Officers to
agencies and consultants and the general working conditions of Systems
Officers. It was emphasized by the working group that we do not have the
mandate to engage in collective bargaining.
2. Communications:
Efforts are underway to improve communications.
- The working group is developing an e-mail list of OPSEU systems officers
and other IT workers
- Important IT information will be posted on the OPSEU web site @ www.opseu.org/ops/jobinfo/index.htm
- We have an OPSEU email address: systemsofficers@opseu.org
3. OPS Collective Bargaining – 2001:
A discussion was held on collective bargaining, scheduled to commence in
the fall. We felt that we had a chance at a special case. We need to convince
the employer that they have a retention and recruitment problem because of
lower wage rates. Mustafa is doing the research. He has already found some
examples in the federal service and in other provincial public services that
we are lagging in compensation. Attendees were asked to bring this matter up
at their local demand review and endorse the special cases that have been
submitted. We shall attempt to meet with the bargaining team in the fall.
4. Systems Officer Reclassification Project:
There is discontent over the Systems Officer Reclassification Project. Only
about 25% of systems officers were reclassified. Many classification
complaints and grievances have been submitted. Cameron informed us that the
Grievance Department at Head Office hopes to deal with the problem in the fall
on a systems wide basis. He is hoping that many of them can be addressed/
resolved in the clusters because of the high probability of an impasse at the
JSSC due to the inarbitrability of classification disputes. They need a lead
hand systems officer from each cluster to help coordinate the complaints in
the clusters. The IT working group agreed to try to recruit them. Cameron also
informed us that there will be a 20 (working) day window to grieve starting
towards the end of June. The window guarantees that a complaint will be heard
in the fall. Grievances can still be filed before the 20-day window.
5. Privatization/Contracting Out:
We had a discussion on privatization and contracting out. It is a real
problem and getting worse in the systems area. We suggested that systems
officers continue to raise this issue at clusters and meetings with branch
management.
6. Table with the Corporate CIO:
The group reiterated its desire to have a table with the Corporate CIO and
other CIO’s to discuss working conditions, privatization and contracting
out. There was dissatisfaction expressed at the slowness of achieving this. We
did get the go-ahead from the OPSEU leadership in January and we’re still
waiting. The Training and Development sub-committee of the CERC is meeting on
June 21st with the employer and we will be in attendance.
