TRIUMF PSRC Meeting
February 20, 2006 13:00 – 14:00
Attending: Anne Trudel (Chair), Stu Austen, John Drozdoff, Brian Evans, Ann Fong, Mike Mouat, Klaus Reiniger, Roman Ruegg (Ex-officio)
John Drozdoff accepted the position of Secretary and Stu Austen accepted the position of Vice-Chair. Phil Jones has kindly volunteered to maintain the PSRC web site. Photos of PSRC board members will be posted on the site as all security issues have been satisfactorily resolved.
Several board members expressed concern about the three new Administrative Policies and Procedures that had been approved by the Director and distributed to all staff. Draft versions of the policies were never sent to any employee group and it was unclear how or even if the policies could be enforced. It was also confusing to have a second subset of policies called Administrative Policies alongside the original set of Personnel Policies. Anne will approach representatives of the other employee groups with the intent of collaborating on a letter that would address the most general criticism, that the documents were drafted and approved without following any real process.
Roman noted that the Policy of Professional Liability was approved the TRIUMF Board of Management in November but had still not been promulgated. It is hoped that this will happen soon.
The matter of service awards is still being addressed by management. The intent is to give awards for five, fifteen and twenty-five years of service, at a small reception arranged for the staff, group members and the division head. Several PSRC board members felt that the actual type of award is irrelevant anyway: it’s the simple recognition of the service that is important. Equally important is to ensure that long-serving employees whose significant anniversary dates had come and gone while the matter was being addressed ultimately do receive recognition.
Management is preparing a proposal for salary increases that must balance cost of living and merit considerations. The consequences of not regularly increasing the salary scales to compensate for cost of living increases becomes apparent when recruiting new staff: in order to provide a competitive salary individuals have to be placed in a job classification that is higher than it really should be.
Jim Hanlon will be asked to speak to the PSRC board about salaries before the proposal is presented to the Board of Management meeting in March.
The eight Task Groups have finalized their reports on the possible reorganization of TRIUMF. Division Heads will strike another committee to draft a summary report and make specific recommendations. Some of these recommendations are bound to have a great impact on staff and it is hoped that all employee groups will have a chance to comment on any proposals before they are implemented.
There was a brief discussion on the difficulties associated with scheduling the PPR process during shutdowns. A May deadline might be easier to meet, however the matter was left unresolved.