bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1988) — Winter 1988 // Hiver 1988, pp. 3–4
A hidden bonus of becoming President of PAFSO is that the Editor kindly provides an opportunity to express one’s opinions publicly, with at least a fighting chance that someone amongst the readers may actually read them. What follow are thoughts on several unrelated issues of current concern.
Particular congratulations are due to M.P. Bob Pennock, to Senators Peter Bosa and Heath Macquarrie and to the Foreign Service Community Association for making a bit of Canadian history while improving life in the foreign service. Private members bills almost never pass in Parliament, but the individuals noted were successful in gaining approval of a private bill which will allow dependents of federal and provincial officials posted overseas to count such official time spent overseas against the residency requirement for Canadian citizenship. This will go a long way towards resolving a problem which many of our spouses have had over the years.
We have had several good discussions recently amongst the Executive of PAFSO about ways to communicate with the membership, fueled by a sense that the Association has not done as much as it might in the past to keep members informed about what the Association is doing on their behalf and on issues of current concern. The question involves, on the one hand, how much members want to know, and, on the other, the vehicles we have at hand for such communication. One approach, which we have been using much more in recent months, is the Departmental telex facility. It has the advantage of timeliness, but its inherent limitations make it most useful for short and pointed messages, particularly those with some urgency attached to them.
Important as communications are, a much more important issue for the Association is the need for volunteers to work on both bout de papier and on Association business. Dan Livermore and I are both, from the perspective of our individual positions and responsibilities, very sensitive to the fact that PAFSO is a voluntary organization, one which depends almost entirely upon the efforts of its members for the results which it achieves. There are many things which must be done if the Association is to keep up with current responsibilities and even more which could be done if we wish to improve our position. Few of them, however, will get done without member involvement.
We can normally get a few souls to help with the research and thinking necessary to get through contract negotiations and FSD reviews. But the range of other potential areas for volunteers is enormous:
• The appraisal system is fundamental to all of our working lives, determining our promotions, assignments and reputations. We have, I suspect, paid too little attention to its proper functioning. A recent successful appeal hinged on the fact that an appraisal made it all the way through the system, including through a promotion board, without anyone being concerned that its subject had not signed it. I do not doubt that there are more and worse cases. At the same time, the selection standards against which we are appraised have not been changed since the 70’s, but are currently under review. The Association should be a part of that review.
- The decentralization of major CIDA responsibilities to posts abroad is reportedly near, with rumours of many additional PY’s to be added to the Department and the likelihood of additional transfers of current CIDA employees. PAFSO must be involved to protect the interests of current members, in the Aid and all streams.
- Promotion of the role of women in the Department is touched upon below. It needs a good volunteer group to research problems and encourage Departmental action.
- It may seem wildly premature, but an argument can be made for starting to think about our next round of contract negotiations. They should be starting less than a year from now, and I believe we could use some of our better minds thinking now, about where our pay levels are going in relation to those of other professional groups and about how we might convince the Treasury Board to recognize us as professionals rather than as members of the broader, and lower paid, administrative category in which we are currently placed
- In one area where a surprisingly high proportion of our membership benefit, we could stand to review our insurance programme to ensure that the product we are offering is the best available, on the market and for the particular needs of our group.
- I think we might be helping our members with some general advice on a variety of personal financial questions, from the practical problems of investing when abroad to the means of protecting and maximizing returns from a personal home in Ottawa. We have some knowledgeable members, and we could probably tap the wider financial advice community in Ottawa if we get organized.
- Saving the best for last, Dan Livermore is organizing a group which will, as a medium term effort, seek to define and investigate a range of issues affecting the professional side of our work in a comparative fashion, looking not only at the problems but at how our colleagues in other foreign services deal with them.
I know from personal experience just how many good reasons there are for not becoming involved in these sorts of activities. I cannot believe that lack of interest will become a problem, for the range of issues is such that most will find something to their taste. Time is a universal problem, and a particular one midst the long hours of External. But even if the new weekday overtime clause has not yet made your manager’s expectations more realistic, the odds are that you can find an hour or two a week. You should certainly not assume that someone else, including the PAFSO Executive or our small full-time staff, will be able to do all that should or might be done. Both are already heavily committed to current tasks, and we are working on what little spare time they might still have.
Those who followed the Press Conference Affair closely last summer may have shared the concern I felt at the accusation in Minister Clark’s July 16 letter to the Globe and Mail that PAFSO had, effectively, not been supportive of the role of women in the Department. Since I have strong and favourable views on the issue of women in the workforce, I was no more pleased by the unfavourable publicity which PAFSO, bout de papier and the foreign service received in a Michele Landsberg column in the Globe in October. I have been concerned that PAFSO become more supportive of appropriate affirmative action in the Department, and I was therefore very pleased to hear that a number of women at the senior FS-2 and EX-1 level have been doing some preliminary research as a basis for urging action by Personnel. While there is a spectrum of opinion on the appropriateness of promoting women to senior levels early, I doubt that anyone will argue that women now in the Department are entitled to equal access to the career paths and the challenging postings which prepare one for more senior responsibilities. The research done by the group suggests that the opposite may be occurring. Support for the role of women on a broad spectrum of issues is an area where the PAFSO Executive would like to see more activity — but we need some of those volunteers to which I referred earlier. Please join us.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1988) — Winter 1988 // Hiver 1988, pp. 3–4. Read the rest of this issue →
