28 April 2006
Issue
The Department of Foreign Affairs has just officially published the results of its FS deployment exercise. You can find the announcement on the Publiservice’s website here.
Action of DFAIT members requested by May 7, 2006
Send an email indicating your support of the draft complaint letters (see below) addressed to Assistant Deputy Minister Gisèle Samson-Verreault and the Public Service Commission against the FS Deployment exercise to Percy Abols with the following text in the body of the message:
I support the letter of complaint of (date), addressed to Assistant Deputy Minister Gisèle Samson-Verreault, regarding the FS deployment exercise.
I also endorse the draft letter of complaint addressed to the Public Service Commission, with the understanding that it will only be sent should a positive response not be received from the department.
Name:
Group and Level:
(if applicable) Acting Level:
Mission/Division:
Telephone:
Official Language Preference:
Important Messages
Please read the letter of complaint (see below), which includes the reasons why PAFSO’s members are so upset about this process.
Even if you signed the initial letter of complaint in December, the complaints must be resubmitted. If you did not sign the original, you may still sign this one. This is a complaint against a flawed deployment exercise.
FS at CIC and CBSA are not currently implicated, because the Deployment exercise was initiated only at the former FAC side of DFAIT.
Please remind employees who may have been successful in this deployment exercise that PAFSO is not against lateral entry in general, a fact we have publicly stated for several years, but rather that PAFSO has concerns about the way in which this particular deployment exercise was held. In fact, PAFSO has long indicated to management that it would welcome a larger FS group so long as current FS have the opportunity to compete for higher-level positions. Employees who are being deployed hopefully will understand that we are complaining about the process, which we view as an unlawful staffing process, and it is not about them personally.
Rationale
When the deployment exercise was announced in late 2005, PAFSO encouraged you to send letters of complaint to DM Harder after the initial announcement. PAFSO asked you to do so because of the uncertainty surrounding the timing of the announcement and the fact that the new Public Service Employment Act was to come into effect on December 31, 2005. Thank you to everyone who participated in this action.
However, PAFSO has since been advised by the Public Service Commission (PSC) that the Deployment Recourse Procedure does not begin until the results of the deployment are officially announced. The PSC advised us that, once the names of the employees being deployed are announced, FS employees (not PAFSO) will have to file a new complaint with ADM Samson-Verreault identifying the individuals who are being deployed, together with the reasons for the complaint.
PAFSO has prepared a draft letter of complaint addressed to ADM Samson-Verreault, (see below). This letter of complaint does not have to be filed individually. In fact, PAFSO is asking all members who support this action to forward an email to Percy Abols indicating their support. The names will then be collated and one letter will be sent.
We expect that we will get an unsatisfactory reply to this complaint. If so, we will have only 14 calendar days starting the day after receiving the ADM’s reply to send our complaint to the PSC. We are asking now for your endorsement of both the complaints to ADM Samson-Verreault and to the Public Service Commission, so as to avoid delays. A draft of the second letter to the PSC is attached so that you can see what form this complaint will take.
Other Actions
As you know, PAFSO has filed an application with the Federal Court asking the court to intervene on what we view as an unlawful staffing process. (See prior PAFSO messages at www.pafso-apase.com) We are still awaiting a date for hearing on this application.
Background Documents:
President’s Message of Dec 14, 2005
PAFSO – Executive Director’s message re Lateral Entries
PAFSO letter to Deputy Minister regarding deployment
Application to Federal Court on FS deployment
Publiservice Announcement of Deployment Results
As our past experience shows all too clearly, only by presenting a united front against the many challenges that face us does PAFSO have any chance at affecting a positive outcome.
John Bonar
President
PAFSO
Letter to PSC English & French
4/28/06