bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1987) — Fall 1987 // Automne 1987, p. 54
On September 21, the President of PAFSO, John Lobsinger, addressed the Annual General Meeting. The following are extracts from his statement.
In casting about for an introduction to this Annual Report to you, the members of PAFSO, I reflected upon the three short months which I have been President of the organization, and I recalled what we all think of as an ancient and wise Chinese curse:
May you live in interesting times I can assure you that it has been an interesting year for the Association and an even more interesting summer for me.
While there have been several events and issues which have made it so, I am sure that none has attracted as much interest and attention as “the Press Conference.” I doubt that there are any of us who are not aware that the Association held a Press Conference this past July 10 which protested the record number of political appointments to the foreign service made by the present Government. This Press Conference attracted unprecedented attention, favourably in the national media and apparently unfavourably in the response of the Minister and the Prime Minister….
Why was a Press Conference necessary? The unprecedented scale of political appointments and their effect on the foreign service are obvious. Previous PAFSO Executives had protested such appointments, quietly within the Department, in person and by letter with the Minister, by letter to the Prime Minister and through Press Releases. The Executive this spring felt that, in view of the lack of response to all of those earlier efforts, some more visible expression of concern was warranted.
Was the Press Release not unduly provocative and unprofessional? This is a harder question. The intent of the release was to attract the Press’s attention and to communicate our message. It succeeded on both counts. Our message was taken by the media and communicated to all Canadians…. All of the stories got the essence of our message: that continuing and excessive political appointments were a threat to the professionalism of the foreign service.
Have we not acted counter-productively, by upsetting the Minister with our Release and Press Conference? There is no sure answer to this question, but I personally believe that we have not…. I have had the opportunity to meet with the SSEA, at his initiative, since then and I think I can fairly report that the meeting was cordial, that it was not recriminatory and that there was a clear understanding on both sides that although our positions on this issue were necessarily different, continued communication was to be encouraged.
Was it worth it? At a very important level, I hope that you the members will give the Executive your views on this…. What is important is that a clear message was sent back, through the articles, the editorials and perhaps even through the polls, that Canadians support a professional foreign service and that our concern about political appointments is matched in the wider public. The Association’s objective was to protect and enhance the professionalism of the foreign service, and the message delivered to the Government is a powerful support for that end….
In other business, the Association has continued to support the legitimate grievances of its members, as a means of protecting the individual and as a means of encouraging the employer to administer the contract and the FSD’s in a fair and consistent manner. The most spectacular such event, in fact, was the Department’s somewhat arbitrary decision to alter the promotion date as a result of an earlier, successful grievance on performance pay. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the so-called Mader-Burney compromise, which allows for retention of the January promotion date and payment of performance pay on the basis of salary when it was earned, is expected to be incorporated into a new contract. Performance pay was also at issue in a successful grievance affecting a large number of members of the Aid Stream. Finally, the sanctity of the appraisal and promotion system, and the failure of the Public Service Commission appeal system to adequately protect them, lie behind the Executive’s decision to support a member’s appeal of a competition to the Federal Court….
In other areas, PAFSO is a voluntary organization, and what we are able to accomplish depends very much on the time, effort and intelligence which our members can put into the Association.
Presuming adequate support, there are a number of things which I think we can and should tackle in the coming year:
• A review of professional conditions of foreign service, comparing Canadian practice with that of other foreign services. Efforts to compare our foreign service with other Canadian employers have not been terribly successful. It would be useful for a variety of purposes to broaden our understanding of how other foreign services deal with a variety of situations and problems — the most obvious being that of political appointments.
• Conditions for women in the foreign service. Members who read the Minister’s letter to the Globe and Mail following our press conference will have noted his remarks on PAFSO’s record in promoting the role of woren in the Department. we accept that there will be a continuing priority attached to placing women in senior positions, at home and abroad, then I believe that we must respond, not negatively, but in terms of encouraging the Department to do what is necessary to ensure that qualified candidates are available. I believe as well that there is a role for PASO in encouraging the efforts of the Department to facilitate spousal employment as a women’s issue of primary importance to our members. I very much hope that members will come forward to volunteer for the work which will move us ahead in these areas.
• Our insurance programme, a benefit which touches many members, deserves a fundamental review over the coming year, in order to ensure that it is both sound and offering as much as we can obtain for the participants.
• There are also ongoing issues under discussion with the Personnel Branch which will bear follow-up. Health and safety, and particularly how the Department deals with the question of AIDS, is unglamourous, but crucial. Selection standards, fundamental not only for recruitment but also for promotion, are being revised, and our interests must be protected
• Finally, communications. It has been evident to me in talking to members over the past several months that there is a need to improve communications with members, whether this be to update them on progress in contract negotiations or to inform them of the Executive’s actions in the political appointments incident. In part because of time constraints in a voluntary organization and in part because of a natural tendency towards confidentiality, we have tended towards a minimalist approach. I have no solutions at the moment, but I believe the Executive should review the problem as a matter of priority in the coming months.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1987) — Fall 1987 // Automne 1987, p. 54. Read the rest of this issue →
