Program and Services Delivery Clerk (PSDC) – Update on the Resolution of Grievance

Background

• As you are aware, a number of employees who worked in Pensions and Integrity operations filed job content grievances against the PSDC job description in 2008.
• Following a third level grievance hearing on job content grievances in 2012, management committed in March 2013 to revising the job description and to submitting the revised version for a classification evaluation. Employees, the union and management contributed to the development of the job description. A classification committee evaluated the job description against existing Government of Canada classification standards while considering the relativity of similar jobs and the organizational context. The Department agreed with the committee’s observations that there was in fact two streams of work being performed by PSDCs.
• As a result, in February 2019, the Department implemented two new job descriptions; a Program Services Officer (PM-01) and a Program Support Clerk (CR-04).
• The following serves to update you on the progress made to date. For more details, please see questions and answers as well as additional questions and answers which provides further information to assist employees in understanding how salary retroactivity will be determined.

Status update

• Management with the support of the Human Resources Services Branch is working diligently to resolve each situation efficiently and effectively with the goal of adjusting employees’ salaries.
• The Department will continue to keep employees informed on progress, and provide additional information on timelines as work proceeds.

Applicable to all

• The Department continues to work in close collaboration with the union to implement these new job descriptions, particularly the new PM-01 Program Services Officer job description.
• The Department has developed a close partnership with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) to ensure efficient coordination of compensation efforts between Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) compensation and the PSPC Pay Centre.
• A working group has been established between the two Departments. The working group released questions and answers to guide employees with pay related questions. Furthermore, the working group continues to meet and undertake various technical activities to minimize Phoenix impacts on reclassified employees, such as the adjustment of business processes to ensure efficiency and timeliness.
• Reclassified employees have started to receive information with respect to a tax waiver and will be provided with a two-week period to indicate if they will be exercising this option.
• The Department has started submitting cases to the Pay Centre with the aim to submit 100 cases per pay period. The Pay Centre will integrate these cases into their normal workload.
• First salary updates were actioned on September 30, 2019. For these employees, the change to their salary appeared on their October 16, 2019 pay cheque. Furthermore, retroactive payments have started to be issued. To date, 148 cases have been salary adjusted and retroactively paid.
• Once payments have been issued, current and former incumbents will be provided with the opportunity to meet an ESDC compensation service pay specialist to receive a detailed explanation of the payment.

Non-Grievors

• The creation and distribution of appointment letters to employees has been completed for all regions except for Ontario where distribution is currently ongoing.
• The Department is currently processing situations for former PSDC employees that were in the position on or after September 13, 2018 but have since left the position.

Grievors

• The Department has completed the recreation of the employment history for grievors (for current incumbents, this may be limited to the identification of their most recent start date) by gathering data from numerous HR systems and other sources. A validation and mapping exercise is currently being completed by management. Once management has completed this validation exercise, grievors will be contacted and provided with a copy of their employment history to also validate the information.
• Once the employment history is validated by management and the grievors, a Memorandum of Settlement (MOS), developed in consultation with the Canada Employment and Immigration Union, will be issued and signed by both parties to resolve the outstanding grievance(s).
• In addition, the Department, will shortly proceed with the signing of MOSs for grievors who have no previous employment periods requiring validation. Grievors will also be issued their reclassification appointment letters for signature at this time.

• The Department has been working on the recreation of employment histories for former incumbents who are grievors by gathering data from numerous HR system and other sources. Once completed, a validation and mapping exercise will be conducted by management. As part of this exercise, former incumbents who are grievors will be contacted to validate the information.
• It is anticipated that resolving former incumbents’ grievances will take some time due to the extensive research that is required to recreate and map their employment history.
• The Department anticipates completing the documentation by March 31, 2020.