HomeMy WebLinkAboutBrethour 14-12-17IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION
BETWEEN:
ONTARIO PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES’ UNION, LOCAL 421
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LOYALIST COLLEGE
Job evaluation grievance of Wilma Brethour, Employment Consultant
File 2013-0421-0002
Mary Ellen Cummings, arbitrator
Appearances:
Wilma Brethour, Timothy Prewer and Cora-Lee Lane for the union
Dan Michaluk, Warren Gee and Jim Whiteway for the employer
Hearing held at Belleville on December 1, 2014
Award released at Georgetown on December 18, 2014
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AWARD
1. The Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union filed a grievance on behalf of
Wilma Brethour, challenging the results of the job evaluation conducted by Loyalist
College with respect to Ms. Brethour’s position as an Employment Consultant at the
employer’s Bancroft campus. I was appointed by the parties pursuant to Article 18.4.3.1
of their collective agreement, to hear and determine the dispute on an expedited basis
2. The parties disagree about the content of the PDF in some areas. They also
disagree about the ratings on five factors; Experience, Guiding/Advising Others, Service
Delivery, Communications and Working Environment.
Duties and responsibilities of an Employment Consultant
3. The Employment Consultant position is different from other positions typically
found at the College, because it provides services to members of the public, instead of
students and staff of the College. Unemployed or underemployed members of the
community come to the Employment Consultant seeking a variety of services. The
Employment Consultant will assess how ready the client is to enter the job market, and
will provide services or referrals to other programs and agencies, depending on the needs
of the client. The Employment Consultant provides advice and information to job seekers
about labour market conditions, vocational training options and how to complete their
education to meet requirements for employment positions and apprenticeships.
4. After interviewing clients, determining their skills, abilities, aptitudes and barriers
to employment, the Employment Consultant will suggest how to reach their employment
goals and make appropriate referrals, if necessary.
5. One significant aspect of the job is "job matching" and "job placement". Ms.
Brethour explained that in job matching, she is contacted by an employer who anticipates
hiring one or a number of employees in the near future. Ms. Brethour will collect
information about the nature of the skills required and she will then contact her clients to
see if any of them are interested. Ms. Brethour said that she is knowledgeable about the
skills of her clients, and will contact those who she thinks are qualified for the position.
At the same time, Ms. Brethour will talk to the client about whether they would like some
help preparing for the interview, updating their resume or other steps to make them as
ready to meet a new employer as possible. Ms. Brethour said that sometimes her clients
need encouragement to apply for jobs and she will often offer to send resumes off to the
new prospective employer.
6. Ms. Brethour will follow up with the client and the prospective employer to see
whether a job offer will be given, or to see if there were any difficulties so that she can
better prepare the client for the next hiring opportunity. If the client is hired by the
employer, Ms. Brethour will follow-up in three months time to see if the employment is
continuing. If there are no problems, she will close the file.
7. Ms. Brethour said that the practice for “job placement” is similar. Employers will
contact her with available positions and she will look among her clients to see who might
be suitable. However, in a job placement situation, Ms Brethour can offer subsidies to
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assist the employer to provide training or to subsidise wages for a period of time over a
longer training period than the employer would ordinarily provide. Ms. Brethour
questions the employer to ensure that the position being offered is sustainable and that the
employer is prepared to offer its own time and efforts for training. Ms Brethour said that
the employer community in the Bancroft area is interested in helping young people find
work, and in helping new immigrants without Canadian experience to be able to make
use of the skills that they have acquired in their country of origin.
8. When Ms. Brethour agrees to provide training monies or a wage subsidy to an
employer, she will create a training plan document, signed by both the client and the
employer, setting out the nature of the training that the employer will provide, and over
what time period. Ms. Brethour will conduct a site visit and follow-up over the course of
the training plan to see if there are any difficulties.
9. In the past, the office participated in a program called Job Connect, which
provided a significant amount of money for training. When that funding ended in 2010,
the department in which Ms. Brethour works rebranded itself as Employment Services.
Much less money is available for subsidized training, with the result that there are fewer
opportunities for job placement. On the other hand, as a Provincial employment centre,
the office has targets for placing numbers of clients in employment and so Ms. Brethour
believes that she continues to focus on job matching for clients, even though no funding
for training is usually available.
The parties’ disagreement about the PDF
10. The significant disagreement between the employer and the union around the
accuracy of the PDF centres around the work of job matching and job placement. The
employer has estimated that only 10% of the time of the Employment Consultant is spent
in this activity. The union estimates that 30% of the time of the Employment Consultant
is spent in this activity, and believes that the position should be called Employment
Counsellor/Job Developer. The desire for the different job title is in part generated by
historical events. At one time, the Bancroft office had Job Developers and those positions
were rated higher than the Employment Consultant and paid accordingly. Ms. Brethour
and OPSEU believe that the Employment Consultants are doing much the same work Job
Developers did, but are not being evaluated and compensated as highly. As counsel for
the employer pointed out, I am not in a position to determine whether the previous
positions to which OPSEU refers were properly evaluated or not. My role is to determine
the content of Employment Consultant job where there is disagreement, and evaluate that
position using the parties’ job evaluation tool.
11. The Bancroft office provides employment services to around 530 clients each
year. The office is normally staffed by four Employment Consultants. The employer
expects that each will provide service to an average of 133 clients each year. The
employer has indicated that each Employment Consultant will provide subsidised
placement services for, on average 19 clients. I do not have a clear idea of the average
number for non-subsidised placements, called simply job matching.
12. On the one hand, the employer’s assessment that 10% of the Employment
Consultant’s time is spent on job matching and job placement seems low, on the other
hand, the union’s assessment of 30% seems high. I note that some of the tasks the union
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has placed under the title of Job Matching and Placement are duplicated under the duties
and responsibilities captured in Employment Counselling/Service Planning. I am
concerned that the union’s assessment is driven in part by the expectation that more time
spent on job development will result in a higher score. What I think matters from my
evaluation is my conclusion that the job matching and job placement duties and
responsibilities are regular and recurring and take up more than 10% of the Employment
Consultants’ time. However, I am not satisfied that those tasks take up 30% of the
Employment Consultants’ time. The union and Ms Brethour did not identify any other
significant areas of disagreement in the accuracy of the PDF.
13. I turn now to the subfactors whose ratings are in dispute.
Subfactor “Experience”
14. This subfactor reads as follows;
This factor measures the typical years of experience, in addition to the necessary education level,
required to perform the responsibilities of the position. Experience refers to the time required to
understand how to apply the knowledge described under “Education” to the duties of the
position. It refers to the minimum time required in prior positions to learn the techniques,
methods and practices necessary to perform this job. This experience may be less than the
experience possessed by the incumbent as it refers only to the time needed to gain the necessary
skills.
15. The employer evaluated the job at Level 4, that is, requiring a minimum of three
years of experience. The employer identified two circumstances in which it had posted
the job of Employment Consultant and required a minimum of three years of experience.
Warren Gee, Employment Ontario Operations Manager, Ms. Brethour’s supervisor, said
that the work that staff do with their clients is fantastic, but there are very formal
structures to guide the movement of clients towards the goal of employment. In his view,
three years of previous experience in the area of employment assistance is sufficient to do
the job because of the structures imposed by the Province on its Employment Ontario
offices.
16. The union said that when Ms, Brethour was hired she had five years of
experience, although she acknowledged that the job posting required only three years.
The Job Evaluation Manual reminds raters to focus on the minimum time acquired in
prior positions to learn the methods and practices necessary to perform the job. That may
be less than the experience that an incumbent has brought to the job. I see no basis to
conclude that the position requires more than three years of experience, particularly when
the employer has demonstrated in two job postings that it has required only three years
of experience. I conclude that Level 4, and 54 points, is the appropriate rating.
Subfactor “Guiding/Advising Others”
17. This subfactor reads as follows;
This factor refers to any assigned responsibility to guide or advise others (i.e. other employees,
students) in the area of the position’s expertise. This is over and above communicating with
others in that the position’s actions directly help others in the performance of their work or skill
development.
Support Staff in the Colleges cannot formally "supervise" others as defined by the Ontario
Labour Board (e.g. hire, fire, handle first step grievances). However, there may be a
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requirement to guide others using specific job expertise. This is beyond being helpful and
providing ad hoc advice. It must be an assigned responsibility and must assist or enable others
to be able to complete their own tasks.
Note to Raters:
1. To clarify the differences between levels 3, 4 and 5:
Level 3 - this may be a position with a particular area of expertise (e.g. accounting), which uses
that expertise to assist others in completing their tasks. Involvement is generally of an advisory
nature and the position is not responsible for how those advised subsequently complete their
tasks.
Level 4 - this may be a position that, while not responsible for formal supervision, is assigned to
assist less experienced staff and is expected to actively contribute to their ongoing skill
development.
Level 5 - w h i l e n o t a f o r m a l " s u p e r v i s o r " , t h e p o s i t i o n h a s t h e a s s i g n e d r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for
allocating tasks and using its expertise to assist others and ensure that the tasks are completed
satisfactorily.
18. Both the union and the employer agree that on a regular and recurring basis, Level
4 is appropriate. It reads “Guide/advise others with ongoing involvement in their
progress”. However, the union and Ms. Brethour assert that on an occasional basis, Level
5 is appropriate. It reads Responsible for allocating tasks to others and providing
guidance and advice to ensure completion of tasks.
19. Ms. Brethour explained from time to time, clients will have a number of tasks to
complete. She used the example of a client who has applied for the Second Career fund,
which is a significant amount of funding. The application requires the client to do a lot of
research into the labour market, what schools offer appropriate courses, their costs and
duration. In her experience, if she does not follow up and keep the client on task, they do
not complete and deadlines are missed. Ms. Brethour said that clients can get
overwhelmed, stuck on one task, and so fail to do others. She indicated that she works
with 7 to 10 applicants to the Second Career fund each year and it is her job to call and
follow up with them.
20. The employer countered that it believed that the Level 4 description captured all
of these aspects of the job. Level 5 was inappropriate, counsel for the employer argued,
because the Employment Consultant is not obliged “to ensure completion of tasks”. In
fact, counsel for the employer argued, it would be inappropriate for an Employment
Consultant to compel a client to complete tasks.
21. I agree with the employer. The Employment Consultant i s responsible for
following up with clients to remind them, but has no responsibility or accountability to
ensure that the tasks are performed. I appreciate that some clients may need coaxing, but
in the end, the client, not the Employment Consultant, is responsible for completing any
tasks needed to access funding. I find that Level 4, for 41 points, is appropriate.
Subfactor “Service Delivery”
22. This subfactor is described as follows:
This factor looks at the service relationship that is an assigned requirement of the position. It
considers the required manner in which the position delivers service to customers and not the
incumbent’s interpersonal relationship with those customers.
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All positions have a number of customers, who may be primarily internal or external. The level
of service looks at more than the normal anticipation of what customers want and supplying it
efficiently. It considers how the request for service is received, for example directly from the
customer, through the Supervisor or workgroup or project leader; or by applying guidelines and
processes. It then looks at the degree to which the position is required to design and fulfil the
service requirement.
….
Level 3 refers to the need to “tailor service”. This means that in order for the position to provide
the right kind of service, he/she must ask questions to develop an understanding of the
customer’s situation. The customer’s request must be understood thoroughly. Based on this
understanding, the position is then able to customize the way the service is delivered so that it
suits the customer’s particular circumstances.
Level 4 means that the position designs services for others by obtaining a full understanding of
their current and future needs. T h i s i n f o r m a t i o n i s c o n s i d e r e d i n a w i d e r c o n t e x t , w h i c h i s
necessary in order for the position to be able to structure service(s) that meet both the current
stated needs and emerging needs. The position may envision service(s) before the customer is
aware of the need.
23. The employer and the union agree that on a regular and recurring basis Level 3 is
appropriate; Tailor service based on developing a full understanding of the customer’s
needs. The union and Ms. Brethour submit that on an occasional basis, Level 4 is
appropriate. It reads Anticipate customer requirements and pro-actively deliver service.
Ms. Brethour said that was appropriate to capture the work she does with employers, in
the community, making contacts to ensure that opportunities are available when clients
come in. For example, Ms. Brethour will contact employers in March and April who she
anticipates will have seasonal work in the Spring and Summer, so that when clients come
in May and June, the Employment Consultant will already have information from
employers about positions that will need to be filled.
24. The employer argued that the situation described by Ms. Brethour was a standard
process to contact employers and inquire about their present needs for employees; the
Employment Consultant is not, for example, building software that can be expanded to
meet as yet unidentified needs.
25. “Anticipate” is defined in the Manual as:
given advance thought, discussion or treatment to events, trends, consequences or problems; to
foresee and deal with in advance.
As I understand the position, the Employment Consultant has no ability to plan for trends,
such as changes in the labour market, or potential alterations in job and vocational
requirements, or the consequences of future diminished funding for training. In my view,
that is the type of job responsibility that Level 4 is intended to capture and value. More
important, I believe that Level 3 captures the job responsibilities of the Employment
Consultant in this area. The position tailors services to both clients and employers after
acquiring and acting on a detailed understanding of their needs. I find that Level 3, and
51 points, is appropriate.
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Subfactor “Communications”
26. This factor reads as follows:
This factor measures the communication skills required by the position, both written and oral
and includes:
• communication to provide advice, guidance, information and training
• interaction to manage necessary transactions
• interpersonal skills to obtain and maintain commitment and influence the actions of others
The Notes to Raters provides the following to clarify:
‘Explain’ and ‘interpretation’ in level 3 refers to the need to explain matters by interpreting
policy or theory in such a way that it is fully understood by others. The position must consider
the communication level/skill of the audience and be sensitive to their abilities and/or
limitations. At this level, if the exchange is of a technical nature, then usually the audience is
not fully conversant or knowledgeable about the subject matter. Unlike communicating with
people who share an understanding of the concepts, in this situation the material has to be
presented using words or examples that make the information understandable for non-experts or
people who are not familiar with the intricacies of the information.
‘Gaining cooperation’ refers to the skills needed to possibly having to move others to your point
of view and gaining commitment to shared goals. The incumbent works within parameters
determined by the department or College and usually there is a preferred outcome or goal. The
audience may or may not have divergent views.
27. The employer rated the position at Level 3, Communication involves explaining
and/or interpreting information to secure understanding. May involve communicating
technical information and advice. The union and Ms. Brethour argue for Level 4,
Communication involves explaining and/or interpreting information to instruct, train
and/or gain the cooperation of others on a regular and recurring basis and Level 5,
Communication involves imparting information in order to obtain agreement, where
interests may diverge, and/or negotiation skills to resolve complex situations on an
occasional basis. Ms. Brethour and the union submit that the whole job is about gaining
co-operation and consent from clients to pursue a path to employment. Ms. Brethour is
not talking only about the consent form clients complete, but the whole process of talking
through clients’ goals for employment, whether they are realistic based on the clients’
skills, education, and the cost and time it would reach that goal. She explained that if a
client expressed a desire to become a physician, but that goal was not realistic, the
Employment Consultant would talk about other careers in the health care sector, and help
to steer the client to a more realistic employment goal that was still consistent with their
desires. To do that, Ms. Brethour said, you need to build a rapport over time with the
client, to win their co-operation.
28. The employer acknowledged that the Employment Consultant is a subject-matter
expert. The incumbent knows what educational qualifications and experience various
jobs require. The Employment Consultant has the ability to explain options and help
clients choose, but that is the end of the communication requirement. The employer
argued that the Employment Consultant does not “convince and cajole” as Level 4
requires.
29. I will start by concluding that Level 5 is not appropriate. The union and Ms.
Brethour relied on the Employment Consultant’s role in what they called negotiating with
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employers around the training subsidy. With respect, that is not the type of
communication Level 5 addresses. The training subsidies come with various criteria. Of
course, the Employment Consultant exercises some discretion in applying that criteria.
But the issues are not complex and the outcomes are not contentious.
30. However, I am not satisfied that Level 3 fully values the range of work. Although
the Employment Consultant cannot and should not dictate outcomes to clients, the
incumbent uses the expertise she has acquired to explain options. Most important, the
Employment Consultant interprets information, such as how to get a Grade 10
equivalency, so that an adult lacking that can pursue an apprenticeship, and then helps the
client to achieve the goal. The Employment Consultant does more than pass on
information: she uses her knowledge to develop a plan with the client, that will help the
client become employed in sustainable work. For the plan, which may have many steps,
to succeed, the Employment Consultant develops a rapport with the client, which requires
gaining the cooperation of the client. I conclude that Level 4, with 110 points, i s
appropriate.
Working Environment
31. The parties agree that most of the time, the Employment Consultant works in a
climate-controlled office environment, what are defined at Level 1 as Acceptable
Working conditions. However, the union and Ms. Brethour indicate that on a regular and
recurring basis, Ms. Brethour is subject to some Level 2 conditions:
Working conditions involve:
-difficult weather conditions
-smelly, dirty or noisy environments
-exposure to very high/low temperatures
-verbal abuse
-working in isolated or crowded situations
-travel
32. The union and Ms. Brethour rely principally on the incumbent’s need to visit
various employers, either to drop off resumes for clients, conduct site visits as part of a
job matching or to check on a client’s progress on a new job. In addition, clients can
occasionally get angry and abusive. Some clients have drug or alcohol addictions or
mental health issues and their behaviour can be difficult.
33. The employer acknowledges that Ms. Brethour is required to travel a bit, and that
clients can be difficult and that some of the workplaces she visits can be smelly, dirty or
noisy, but many of them would be typical office environments. The employer rated the
position at Level 2 on an occasional basis.
34. In the Manual, verbal abuse is described as “more than dealing with someone who
is angry or upset”. I did not hear that the Employment Consultant is faced with abuse that
meets that definition.
35. The main difference between the parties concerns the issue of travel. Ms.
Brethour acknowledged that most of the employers she visits are within Bancroft, a few
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minutes drive from her office. But, still she said, visiting them is an interruption, although
not unpleasant.
36. The employer looked to the number of kilometres that Ms. Brethour has claimed
as mileage reimbursement. Ms. Brethour claimed around 1000km a year, which the
employer said translated to less than 17 hours per year. Ms. Brethour pointed out that she
did not always claim for mileage, so that was not an accurate indicator.
37. I look to the Note to Raters in the Manual. It says that travel that is a requirement
of the position and occurs on a regular basis for more than 10% of the time (e.g.
equivalent of ½ day a week or 2½ days per month) should be considered regular and
recurring). Accepting that Ms. Brethour travels more than 1000km per year because she
does not always claim mileage when visiting local employers, she and the union have not
provided information to suggest she travels the equivalent of ½ day a week or 2 ½ days
per month.
38. I am satisfied that the minimal travel and occasional exposure to dirty, noisy or
smelly workplaces is fairly captured by an “occasional” rating at Level 2 for an additional
9 points to Level 1’s 7 points.
Summary
39. I make the following conclusions, for the reasons set out above:
Experience Level 4 54 points
Guiding Advising Level 4 41 points
Service Delivery Level 3 51 points
Communication Level 4 110 points
Working Environment Level 1 7 points
Level 2 occasional 9 points
When the ratings I have determined are added to the parties’ agreed ratings, the score is
571 points, which places the position in payband H.
Signed at Georgetown, Ontario, this 17th day of December 2014.
Mary Ellen Cummings