For several months now, USGE and CSC have been working together to find a viable solution in order to review the National Generic Work Descriptions (NGWD) for approximately 80 different work groups, all in an effort to clear up more than 3,000 grievances. Many, if not the majority, of these NGWD have not reflected the members’ work responsibilities for many years. The solution to achieving such a feat is found in the signed agreement between USGE and CSC.
These working groups have been tasked with reviewing the NGWD and have begun their work. In fact, the committees have been meeting since May 2010. Here is a list of NGWD that will be the first to be reviewed:
- Compensation
- Sentence Management (including the Chiefs without supervision and the Sentence Management Associate)
- Behavioural Counselor
- OMS – Offender Management System Specialists
The NGWD review committees that have been identified and that will begin their task soon are the following:
- Chief, Institutional Services (The job description is fairly recent, but was only reclassified in the Ontario region, from GS-STS-07 to GS-STS-08)
- Health Services Assistant
- Program Assignment and Inmate Pay Assistant
- Commis au chef d’administration et gestion du matériel (This is not a national generic description — these positions are in Quebec only)
- Transfer Coordinator
- Assistant to Deputy Warden or Assistant Warden
- Psychology Testing Assistant
- Psychology Testing Clerk
- Human Resources Assistant – Institution
- Human Resources Generalist (RHQ)
USGE is ensuring that all necessary resources are available in order to complete these NGWD reviews and, at the same time, to resolve all related grievances currently being held in abeyance. USGE RVPs are the team leaders of the different NGWD working groups.
We understand that each of our affected members is anxious to find out the status of their NGWD grievances. Many of them are tempted to write and have in fact sent emails requesting updates on their grievance statuses. We are asking those affected members to not send us emails or to call on an individual basis. The number of grievances (3,000) is too high to permit us to answer each and every query. The time needed to respond is time taken away from working with the NGWD review committees. We would invite our members to visit the USGE website to find out the most recent information on the progress with the NGWD review.
We wish to thank you for your understanding and your patience. This allows us to provide the best service possible to you, our members, and to achieve a positive result for all our members as it relates to their grievances.