How time flies – it seems like yesterday that I submitted a report to the NEO.
During the past few months I have been very busy with lots of telephone calls, discussions, meetings and grievance presentations.
Some members take up a lot of time and their files seem to get more complicated with every telephone call or discussion and meetings with Management.
I am truly grateful to the National President, National Executive Vice-President and the Labour Relations Officer for all their help and guidance with these files.
In the Ontario Region there seems to be a lot of issues with the management style of some VSTMs and Duty to Accommodate (DTA) grievances have become very common. To my mind, management just does not seem to understand what DTA means and what their responsibilities are with respect to these situations. I find I am constantly training Management as well as employees. As most of these issues need to be handled immediately, I have not been able to consult with the EOC on them, for which I apologize. Sorry Shane.
As RVP I have been busy mentoring new Local Presidents, Acting Local Presidents and trying to get a Local a new executive, which I am glad to say was done. The Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer have resigned therefore By-elections have been organized.
Along with all the member issues, I have also been busy with the Finance Committee, Structure Committee and By-Law Committee meetings.
The National Employment Equity Diversity Advisory Committee (NEEDAC) met face-to-face in Ottawa for the first time after almost 6 – 7 years and I was requested by Labour Relations to co-facilitate this two-day meeting because of my previous role as Chair of NEEDAC as well as my role as a JLP facilitator. It was an interesting two-day meeting.
The Ontario PSAC Women’s Regional Conference was held in Toronto September 27 and 29th, which I attended as an Observer. The Local President from Kirkland Lake was a delegate. The Conference was well received.
I also had the pleasure of co-facilitating the first NCR-JLP workshop on Preventing Violence and Harassment in the workplace. It has just been created and is in great demand.
So much to write about – it is difficult to pick and choose. While writing this report I have made a commitment to myself to keep an ongoing report about my activities so that when the time comes to submit my reports in the future I can do so without spending hours thinking of what I have achieved in the past few months. Looking forward to Convention 2020.
In Solidarity,
Zarina Khan,
Regional Vice-President, Ontario Region