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AUPE LOCAL 5 MINUTES
December 5, 2003
AUPE HQ, Edmonton, AB
Chairman: Mike Dempsey – Minutes: Rick Stewart
In attendance: Mike Dempsey, Norm Hawkes, Rus DiFore, Quentin Spila, Gerry Matthews, Ken Podulsky, Kimpton Bradford, Rick Stewart, Terry Fredrick, Brian Randall Bryon Kessler. Absent: Randy Axani (with regrets)
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2. Adoption of the agenda MSC |
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3. Introduction of Officers and Guests: |
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4. Minutes of Previous Council Meeting:
September 12,2003 |
MSC |
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Amended to add: Mandatory worksite attendance under Business Arising, Retiring staff – local obligations, Northern recruitment strategy, and Vehicle policy under New Business. |
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5. Business Arising From Minutes |
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- Action item: Mike Dempsey to write a letter to Brian Randall requesting that EMAC address the issue of inconsistencies in the interpretation of a break and the payment of overtime. Letter to be written before the end of September.
- Email sent instead of letter. Brian also received an Email from Diane Dunn, summed up as follows: After the first day, staff on fires are to be scheduled to a 12 hour shift. No real answer to the question of a break. If declared an emergency, may work more than 12 hours. Discussion as to possible further action. Should Local 5 prepare a written policy so that a grievance can be filed? If we can get an interpretation of Wilderness Camp Allowance, we should be able to get a definition of over night fires. Leaning to straight time starting again at your regular start time. Want Local 005 to come up with a single set of standards as to what constitutes a break to restart at straight time, and make it known (after proper consultation).
- Action item: Mike Dempsey to update tower letter sent out to all towers last spring. This letter will be sent out to tower persons again next spring. Plan is still to meet with tower people at fall towerperson’s meeting.
- Letter sent, but meeting occurs every second year. Mike to resend a letter for next season.
- Action item: A policy is needed on how donations are handled.
- Discussed and will be moved to new business.
- Action item: Old computer, printer disposal.
- With an absence of direction, suggest they be donated to a local school division or some charity.
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- Mandatory worksite attendance.
- Discussion. Site specific and is likely better handled as a grievance. Issue is that crews are being over nighted at a location to supervise crews without being paid. Advise crews that in this situation they should submit overtime claim and grieve if not paid. Council agrees that standby for the hours beyond regular shift and callback if called back to work is the proper application of the master agreement.
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Action Item:
Moved Mike Dempsey (as Local Chair) to send a letter to upper management in Forest Protection requesting a clarification of duty hours, and what constitutes a proper break to restart the regular pay time clock, with a requested response date prior to the start of the next fire season. MSC
Mike to also send another tower letter some time prior to the next season.
Moved that we donate old computers to charity MSC
Stewards to be advised to review the minutes for council decision regarding mandatory worksite attendance. |
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6. Correspondence |
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Correspondence list was distributed. Some discussion on the labour school, rescheduling of the conferences, AUPE essential skills. Move to accept correspondence. MSC |
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Action Item: |
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7. Report Of Officers |
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Chair – Verbal report. Organized convention logistics. Some difficulty getting delegates to convention. Need to have more than 1 alternate. Need people who are truly interested in attending. Absenteeism at Convention is a major concern.
Briefly discussed Literacy in the Workplace conference that was held in Canmore in November. MSC |
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Vice Chair – Verbal report. Busy with GSBC. Nothing to report. MSC |
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Secretary – Verbal report. Nothing to report. MSC |
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Treasurer – Verbal report. Audit findings received with kudos from the auditor. 1 day of training on quicken. Request from AUPE Secretary/Treasurer and auditor for a Financial Policy document. Account balance read. MSC
Some discussion on the purpose of the invested balance. |
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PE – Brian Randall reported on behalf of Doug Gamble. AUPE was successful in all the Health Care run off votes, resulting in approximately 7,000 new members. New staffing positions being presented to tomorrows PE meeting. New regional office being opened in Grande Prairie. MSC |
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Action Item: None |
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8. Committee Reports |
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GSBC- Management at 1% GSBC is at 6%. Information sessions held in regions to get input from the members. Last meeting Oct. 21. Try to negotiate the best deal possible but if the members are not supportive then there is not much to negotiate. Information sessions well attended. Management not moving from 1%. Pointed out that Local 005 is not well represented on the Information sessions (pickets). If no progress will be looking at mediation. MSC Kimpton Bradford |
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EMAC: Need to set up and EMAC meeting need agenda items. Meeting likely to be in February. Addition of "modifiers" needs to be taken to EMAC. If there is an appearance that EMAC is not doing anything, we need to keep bringing issues forward. MSC Brian Randall |
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PREP: Involved in benchmark and validation committee. Validation now up to 9 days January 21-23, January 28-30, and February 4-6. Timber Management Specialist benchmark completed. Pressure on to get all the benchmarks completed. There is a feeling that there is some contempt from HR&E regarding the dates for validation. This is a major time commitment and the dates are constantly being changed making it difficult to get a commitment from the people selected for the validation committee. MSC Mike Dempsey |
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Action Item:
Put request for EMAC agenda items on the Web Site (Brian Doug)
Find a F&W alternate for PREP validation. (call Jason and get alternates and a Bio rep.). Mike Dempsey |
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9. New Business |
- Inconsistencies in interpretation of: definition of rest break, continuous work, and mandatory days of rest. (Ken, Brian)
- Dealt with under business arising.
- FP only paying retro weekend premium for past year only (2003). (Ken, Brian)
- Diane Dunn stated that they are prepared to pay weekend premium on all hours back to the term of the agreement. If they are not, then there is possible further action required.
- Covered under the committee reports.
- Formal finance policy, procedures binder. (Brian)
- Motion to send Local 5 Chapter 7 $608.65 to bring them up to $800.00. MSC
- Request from Lisa Binwell and Ed Mardell for a formal finance policy to cover how donations, honorariums, and plaques are dealt with. Local 56 has a very good manual which could be used as an example. Brian will get a copy to Gerry and the finance committee for review.
- Motion to get a plaque for Eva Romaniuk’s retirement. MSC
- Wilderness Camp Allowance. (Brian)
- Interpretation provided by Chris Twaits. Discussed by council. Back country patrolman, HAC, remote trailer camps where employee is required to provide their own food and domestic chores. Needs to be requested. Retro needs to be requested back to the effective date of the current agreement. Lookouts and tower persons appear not to be excluded by the contract (Brian will look further into this).
- Group eyeglass plan. (Kimpton)
- Eye glass plan is not covered by the agreement or the extended plan. Are there sufficient people in Local 5 to establish a plan? Discussed and general feeling is that it is not worth pursuing.
- Local 5 Chapter 7 budget motion. (Gerry)
- Dealt with motion carried.
- Labour school in Jasper. (Mike)
- Dealt with.
- January conference (women’s issues, OHS, and Anti-Priv.) (Kimpton)
- Conferences are postponed and may have to re submit candidates.
- Northern staff recruitment strategy (Kimpton)
- Discussion of document to improve the recruitment to remote and northern locations.
- Discussion as to appropriate action. Absorption of chapter by Whitecourt Chapter is not an option. Need to make contacts with Cpt. 2 personnel in order to restart the chapter.
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- If there is a problem with the present vehicle policy, get the information to EMAC member.
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Action Items:
Finance committee to meet to discuss the manual and bring it forward to the next council meeting as an agenda item. Will most likely meet the day before the next council meeting.
Brian to check with Chris Twaits to see if it applies to towers and lookouts.
Kimpton to bring it up at the GCSB at the earliest possibility with a heads up to the research officer in AUPE.
Mike to send Rus a copy of the staff list of Cpt 2 to Rus D. (completed Dec 10/03 – Mike) |
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10. Date of next meeting |
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February 27, 2004 09:00 AUPE HQ in Edmonton |
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