|
Archives
President`s Report to Members on the Challenges Facing the Foreign Service of Canada
In this 40th year since PAFSO was created, Foreign Service officers should be very concerned about the future of the FS group. On October 4, PAFSO held its Annual General Meeting, and my President’s Report summarized some of the key issues we face. Following is a more detailed review of our challenges. I ask all members to take the time to read this message, and to support your Executive’s work in the coming year. We will continue to communicate with members about this and other issues, including through a reinstated regular PAFSO Update.
PAFSO is engaged in trying to resolve the negative fall-out for many of our members from the new collective agreement and conversion. Even more worrying, a series of actions taken by senior management are threatening our group’s viability. As noted by former Ambassador John Kneale, "To many officers it seems that the very notion of the foreign service is under attack."
The Collective Agreement
At first blush, the Foreign Service would appear to have had a good year. After working almost two years without a contract, we finally negotiated a four-year collective agreement which will run until June 30, 2007. Members received increases higher than most other public service groups, building on increases won in the previous contract.
But this agreement was only obtained after coming to the brink of strike action. Our threat was real: armed with our sizeable job action fund, your Executive was working with members in Ottawa and around the world to prepare for various types of activities. And our preparation helped achieve our wage increases. But despite our best intentions, faced with Treasury Board’s intransigence and a climate of political uncertainty (many predicted an election campaign would be forced that week), we failed on a couple of key points.
The new Collective Agreement makes progress on rates of pay, but there is still a long way to go. The rates of pay at the new FS1 and FS2 levels are too low and not competitive with other comparative groups - especially the CO group. Our pay rates still do not reflect our unique working conditions, living and working in different cultures, languages and increasingly dangerous environments, nor the sacrifices our families make. We also recognize that we failed many of our newest FSDP members. Your negotiating committee rejected the offer of pay increases until Treasury Board relented to allow grandfathering for at least some FSDP employees. But we were unable to achieve grandfathering for all FSDP officers. We will need to focus on all of these issues in the next round of negotiation in 2007.
FS Conversion
The new collective agreement also ushered in the conversion of the FS group from two to four levels. The decision to convert our group and the implementation process are indications of the troubles we face. Quite simply, PAFSO’s involvement in the conversion process was very limited. The whole exercise, which lasted over four years, was based on management’s fixation with a pre-determined four-level structure. PAFSO attempted to engage management on a proposal to consider a three-level service, which we believe would have avoided many of the conversion problems we now face. PAFSO’s efforts fell on deaf ears, as did a petition from 600 of our members. Unfortunately, Public Service legislation makes job group conversion the prerogative of management, and thus PAFSO had no further ability to negotiate this process.
But PAFSO is actively representing members’ interests on the complications following conversion. Many of our members are not receiving the acting pay to which they are entitled, or they are finding that their new salaries are lower than they were prior to conversion. You will find on the PAFSO website a letter PAFSO wrote to Treasury Board Secretariat concerning the appropriate salary for employees acting in higher level FS positions (link to PAFSO letter). Moreover, many of our members have grieved the re-classification of their positions or their substantive levels, including those faced with the absurd situation of having to go through a promotion process to the FS- 4 level despite having currently or in the past worked in what are now FS-4 positions. We have initiated discussions with the departments to discuss a process for dealing with the grievances that flowed from conversion, and we will be hiring a classification consultant to help us in this regard.
PAFSO is also extremely concerned about the promotion bottlenecks that will be created by the new four-level structure. We are already engaging with management about FS-1 to FS-2 promotion, and will be watching the FS-3 and FS-4 promotion processes closely.
The Foreign Service is under attack
If we only had to face the above-mentioned problems, we would have our work cut out for us. I regret to say that our group’s viability is at risk. Our group size (about 1,000) has hardly increased in a decade. Our ability to rise within the FS group will be slowed by the conversion of the group to four levels. And the very future of the FS group is being threatened by a series of actions management is taking:
-the opening up of HOM positions to other government departments, rather than promoting the most accomplished individuals who have risen through the FS ranks;
-the increasing number of non-FS who are being placed in managerial positions (Director or Deputy Director) which were formerly occupied by FS;
-the increase in term and contract employees (and the resulting conversion of many FS positions), including the recent advertisement for 30 non-FS positions in FAC’s START program;
-the invitation this year for all job groups at FAC and ITCan to apply for the EX-1 competition, resulting in more than 400 applications;
-the planned Lateral Entry competition, likely to allow non-FS entry at all FS levels; and
-the very worrying decision in 2004 and 2005 to open all postings abroad to non-FS officers, including non-rotational.
On their own, each of these actions might be manageable. In fact, PAFSO is supportive of measures like a one-time Lateral Entry competition to bolster the FS group, so long as junior FS would also be allowed to compete for higher level FS positions,. But taken together, these actions suggest a Foreign Service under attack. When you have fewer opportunities for promotion (as if that was possible), when you have far fewer posting opportunities, and when you begin to spend 2/3 or more of your career in headquarters assignments, the impact of these changes will slowly become clear.
These actions and the apparent failure of management to recruit enough FS (as illustrated by the failure of the FS group to grow in size despite an acknowledged lack of FS in the departments), suggest a disregard by management of the core value of the FS group. We are, however, hopeful that management will achieve its stated goal of recruiting 120 new FS members for FAC and ITCan through the ongoing post-secondary recruitment process.
We are the only group in the Public Service that gains invaluable experience and insight over the course of a career that comes from living and working for years in other cultures, learning how to interact with the different values of foreign governments so as to further Canada’s policies and help Canadian companies. The February 17, 2005 Symposium "Does Canadian Foreign Policy Need a Foreign Service?" organized in Ottawa by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA) saw each of the invited speakers (Peter Harder, Derek Burney, Hugh Winsor and Masud Husain) argue that Canada needs a strong foreign service. http://www.ciia.org/ncbs.htm. So why is our profession being whittled down?
What to do?
It has become increasingly clear that PAFSO’s relations with the senior management of FAC and ITCan must be improved. In contrast, relations with senior management at CIC are better; there is room for improvement, but there appears to be a greater value put on the work of the FS at CIC. The relationship between the FS group and management is key, perhaps more important than for any other job group in the public service. When we serve abroad, we are obligated to count on one another on a day-to-day basis, for our work and our security, highlighted particularly at our smaller missions. We have a common interest that goes much deeper than the usual employer-employee relationship. Unfortunately, it seems that this valuable common interest is being purposefully undermined, and even scorned.
I think that we have to work harder now more than ever to improve our relationship with management. They know what it is we do, and most understand the Foreign Service community of interest.
Your Executive has been taking steps to try to address these issues, including an advocacy campaign to try to raise awareness of the value of the Foreign Service. But our members need to be aware of these threats, helping to look for opportunities to engage management in a constructive manner on these questions. Many of you will have already read John Kneale’s provocative contribution in the most recent issue of bout de papier, Vol. 21-3, where he suggests actions that PAFSO might take. This 40th year of PAFSO’s creation is an excellent opportunity to highlight the value of the rotational foreign service and the importance of creating and maintaining a level playing field for those that have chosen it as a career. Please seriously consider helping your PAFSO Executive by volunteering to join one of our committees. We will be reporting to you further on the issues raised in this report.
I conclude by reproducing a letter sent to the Ottawa Citizen in 2000 from the former Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, in which they described the value of the foreign service. PAFSO will work towards ensuring that this message is more than just words.
John Bonar
President
11/9/05
"The golden age of Canadian diplomacy – Our foreign service is more important than it has ever been" Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2000 Don Campbell and Rob Wright, former Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
"Recent articles in the Citizen have given an impression that the "golden age" of Canadian diplomacy has come and gone. Allow us to set the record straight…
Of course, most of the day-to-day work of the foreign service goes on behind the scenes. Our diplomats are there, 24 hours a day, analyzing, advocating, negotiating, and finding solutions to problems large and small in major capitals and in the ends of the earth… They do it at considerable personal and family cost. And they do it for Canada. This commitment to service is real. It should be a source of great pride to all Canadians.
There are a range of old and new pressures on our foreign service not faced by those working only in Canada. Issues such as deteriorating environmental quality of life and greater threats to personal safety obviously have a negative effect on those working on behalf of Canada in many locations around the world…What we call the ‘rotational’ lifestyle makes the pursuit of any career for the foreign service spouse a particular challenge, with potentially difficult financial and personal implications…
We have no hesitation in stating that today’s foreign service continues to attract young people of superlative calibre…when compared to past generations, these Canadians tend to have more life experience, more education, fluency in more languages, and better reflect Canada’s cultural diversity…
Some concerns raised in your articles are real and pressing. It is certainly not our intention to diminish them…We have made significant progress…although clearly there is more work to do. We have invited all members of our community to work with us in charting the way forward.
We believe strongly that Canada’s foreign service community deserves support and recognition commensurate with its dedication, commitment and specialized expertise. We will continue to do our part to defend the interests of a profession whose relevance to the concerns and interests of Canada and individual Canadians has never been greater, and can only increase in this era of globalization."
|
