What concerns Guild members most, according to the CMG bargaining survey completed in October, are workload, job security, pay, as well as training and career development. The results of the survey helped shape our bargaining priorities for the current round of talks and have been presented to CBC management.
The Guild and management have developed common understandings on the situations in which temporary and contract employees should be hired, refining the existing provisions in the collective agreement. The Guild bargaining committee believes that these understandings will increase overall job security and provide a clearer path to regular employment, while giving CBC the flexibility to get the shorter-term expertise to try out new things, deal with temporary increases in work and cover off employee absences.
We have also been working to develop common layoff and recall provisions for all employees. As it stands, the provisions of the former units 1, 2 and 3 are still in force.
In addition, the Guild bargaining committee is proposing to discuss other job security issues, including outsourcing and your access to available work. The Guild seeks provisions that reinforce a commitment to CBC employees.
When it comes to workload, the general problem for individual employees ? and sometimes whole departments ? has been identified as too much work to do in too little time. The health effects of workload stress are well documented. The Guild hopes to engage in creative dialogue on such areas as volume and intensity of work, the lack of backfill to cover off absences, how work hours are set (ie. self-assigned, weekly assigned and daily assigned), annual and other leave, alternate work arrangements and scheduling.
The survey underscored that while career development and training are important, the existing “Performance Management and Staff Development” process is not working. Employees want and need opportunities to train and retrain, so that they are able to meet the challenges of our fast-changing industry and to move in step with the transformations in our work. We need a process that allows employees and managers to have productive discussions about their work, the direction their department is taking and the training that is needed, and then real and sustained follow-up.
Members also placed compensation high on their list of priorities. While keeping in mind economic realities, the Guild bargaining committee will explore ways of increasing members’ remuneration, including across-the-board wage increases and other forms of compensation.
As we have communicated to you before, the talks have been very productive, with true two-way dialogue and creative approaches to resolving issues. We hope this marks a new beginning for employee-management relations, one that will have lasting benefits for both employees and the public broadcaster as a whole.
Both committees are working continuously on negotiations until December 12. Face-to-face meetings between the full bargaining committees will take place the weeks of November 24 and December 8. We will keep you up to date on the developments.
Your bargaining committee:
Marc-Philippe Laurin
Brendan Elliott
Annick Forest
Elaine Janes
Harry Mesh
John O’Connor
Chris Turner
Barbara Saxberg,
Dan Oldfield, Senior Staff Representative
Glenn Gray, Staff Representative