Union representatives meet call centre management in Ottawa

CEIU representatives from call centres across the country met on November 13 with senior management on a range of critical issues. The occupancy rate, time between calls, reading time, team meetings and monitoring were among the topics discussed. Management’s November 26 communiqué to staff announcing improvements in areas such as reading time and team meetings reflects the efforts of CEIU call centre representatives who put a strong case forward to the employer on behalf of their members.

The meeting was held November 13 in Ottawa, and because a number of issues require closer study it was agreed that a teleconference call would be held in the second week of January, 2010. The call will discuss proposed solutions and provide an update on actions taken since the November meeting.

At a November 14 meeting of call centre union representatives, the consensus view was that the session with management had allowed for a good airing of concerns. The real test, however, would come in January when the employer returned with proposed solutions.

Detailed minutes of the November 13 meeting should be available in the near future, but in the meantime members are encouraged to use the CEIU Member Network to connect with those who attended the meeting. The union’s social network has the collaboration tools needed to discuss issues and exchange documents, and members are urged to join the network’s Call Centre group.

The following management and union representatives attended the November 13 meeting.