Labour/Management Relations #3
 
Your Union Executive would like to thank everyone who completed the recent mid-year CUPE 1063 survey.

We are presently reviewing the information but we thought it would be important to update you on the union’s involvement with management in regards to the current Digital Modernization Program. This is in response to the questions that you posed to us in the survey.

At this point, CUPE 1063 has not been asked by management to participate in the Digital Modernization Program. Our role as your representative would be to ensure that the Collective Agreement is adhered to and that union jobs are protected.

We feel that it is important to keep our members informed to the best of our ability so we will continue to provide you information in regards to this project.

In the survey, we asked a couple of questions about your understanding of the Digital Modernization Project and if you felt that it would have an impact on your current job. We asked this for some specific reasons which we will touch on later in this update.

– 72.48% of members who completed the survey do not feel well informed or are not informed at all regarding the Digital Modernization Project.
– 61.47% do not know anything about the project’s impact on their job.

I realize that there has been some very brief communication from management in regards to this project but to be better prepared for your questions, we have done some initial inquiry with management on some concerning trends.

We have been told that the first step in the program is upgrading our technology infrastructure which typically means all hands on deck in our I.T. department but we are concerned with management’s apparent approach:

– 22 empty unionized positions in IT (up from 19 in Jan 2023).

As indicated in our previous updates, your union has been concerned with management’s previous requests for wording changes in regards to Contracting Out in the Collective Agreement from our last bargaining session.

We have asked the H/R department on the current number of Contracted Out positions in our I.T. department. We were told there were 5.
 
Further investigation was done and we now believe that there are currently 28 outside, non-unionized I.T. consultants/contractors on the WCB payroll. We have no idea what their wages are.

We inquired with H/R if this number was correct and why management did not follow current Collective Agreement language in hiring these roles. We were initially told that 5 positions of the 28 were actual unionized positions that they could not fill. The remaining 23 are specialized positions. We have asked for further information on the duties of each of these positions. We are waiting for this information before we decide on our next step (Grievance/Arbitration) on the Contracting Out provision in our Collective Agreement.

As noted above, one of your union’s roles is to protect unionized positions to the best of our ability.

Now, this may be a coincidence that the Digital Modernization Program initial stage is reviewing our Information Technology but it also raises questions/concerns about what departments are next in this program.

As indicated, your union is trying to be prepared for what this program will bring. We hope it brings improved technology, improved processes for you to complete your job and an increase in unionized positions.

The last vacant position report from H/R indicated 41 vacant positions that are not presently being recruited for:

– Claim Service Representative – 3
– Information Technology – 22
– Review Office – 2
– Safe Work – 12
 
We have looked into what the current trends are within Canada and the provincial Workers Compensation industry.
 
We found a report published by Deloitte on the future of WCB organizations in Canada. If you’re interested, read the full report and note that automated services are becoming a trend.

 The future of workers’ compensation: How workers’ compensation organizations are improving return to work outcomes | Deloitte Canada

We indicated in our last update that CUPE 1063 and management had arranged a Labour/Management meeting for September 20, 2023. Unfortunately, this meeting had to be rescheduled to November 28, 2023, at the union’s request. Unforeseen bargaining sessions required our CUPE National representative to be away.
 
The above is information that your union has collected, and we feel that it is important for you to have.  We want you to be fully informed of concerns your union has and the steps we are taking to clarify with management if these are valid concerns our members should be aware of.
 
In Solidarity,
 
Bob Sawchyn
President
CUPE 1063