Government Temporary Help Services Advisory Committee Meeting Record of Decision - July 11, 2007

• Agenda
• Record of Decisions

Agenda

Wednesday, July 11, 2007
10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
11A1, Room 101
Gatineau, Québec

1. Update and Discussion re: Classifications
2. Update on GoCM
3. Comments to be tabled re: RFSO/SA
4. Round table
5. Next meeting

Record of Decisions

In attendance:

• Steven Turner, Chair (Consultant)
• Sylvain Cardinal, PWGSC
• Debbie Sinclair, PWGSC
• Marcel Landry, PWGSC
• Sylvie Fournier, PWGSC
• Captain Crane, DND
• Helen Seto, Health Canada
• Meredith Egan, ACSESS
• Jeremy Ingle, ACSESS
• Kathryn Tremblay, ACSESS (via teleconferencing)
• Paul Gagnon, Portage Personnel
• Daniel Moorcroft, QMR Staffing Solutions Inc.
• Martin Chénier, Spherion
• Marcel Chiasson, Director General, Procurement Renewal Office Phil Battaglini

During the meeting Marcel Chiasson arrived for a brief exchange (introduction and meeting) with the Advisory Committee. Marcel also conveyed his appreciation for the collaborative efforts of the Committee.

Item

Item 1 Update and Discussion re: Classifications

Information from Helen Seto was not provided.

Discussion by ACSESS with industry on the General Labourer classification did not occur.

Phil Battaglini provided an overview of the process followed in synthesizing and quality assuring the data to arrive at his conclusions during the performance of the work.

The following schedule to complete work on all 5 streams was tabled:

• Streams 1 through 3 will be finalized next week (18 July). Feedback from industry was to have been provided this week.
• Stream 4 information will be presented to the Committee by Phil, next week (18 July).
• Stream 5 information will be presented to the Committee by Phil on 25 July; information from industry is needed on 20 July. Dan Moorcroft is the Industry lead on this.

In reference to the removal of the Junior level in a number of the classifications in Streams 1 through 3, the Clients at the table advised that "the norm" was not to go to the Junior level.

PWGSC agreed that a new bucket in Stream 5 would be considered to respond to "Health Professionals", (e.g. lab technicians, dentist, pharmacist), however, the bucket needs to be defined to avoid it being a catch all for everything; the intent of establishing detailed classifications was to ensure that the functions of a requirement (job) match the classification selected.

Also, in support of Helen Seto's data gathering for "nurses", Phil will contact Janet Tsui to investigate if any information exists in Janet's method of supply.

Item 2 Up date on GoCM

PWGSC advised of the focus on IPS and an overall design for services.  The design includes 2 routes:  Standing Offer (where Right of First Refusal is to apply and no negotiations) and Supply Arrangement (where competitions are to occur and suppliers are free to reduce their ceiling rates at the time of competition but final rates can be no higher than  the ceiling  rates posted in the system).

PWGSC confirmed that IBM has confirmed that the design can be accommodated through GoCM, e.g. a Supplier Portal exists in SRM and simply needs to be enabled.  The Supplier Portal does not allow direct access to the GoCM database, and updates to the CCP rate would be handled through an upload (by IBM) from data input in the Supplier Portal.  Friday is the day for uploads, however, PWGSC will obtain confirmation that this "upload" would occur after hours.  PWGSC will also obtain confirmation on the time for server maintenance.

The new term of "Voluntary Price Discount" (VPD) was introduced as a replacement to the "Continuous Competitive Price" (CCP).  This is in line with other commodities.

Item 3 Comments to be tabled re: RFSO/SA

Comments from Industry were not received prior to the meeting. A wide-ranging discussion was held to address numerous issues raised by industry. Several clarifications were achieved and some issues remained outstanding.  

Item 4 Round table

Pierre Paquette advised that the term of the Chair will end on July 31. After some discussion industry requested that an extension be granted to ensure consistency to the point of completing the draft SOSA. PWGSC will take this under consideration.

Item 5 Next meeting

July 18 2007, with the goal of finalizing the review of the RFSO/SA.