Union Engagement

Date: April 27, 2020

Classification: Unclassified

Branch / Agency: HRB/CBSA

Proposed Response:

• The CBSA is in regular communication with the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) and has instituted the following:
  • weekly ad-hoc calls with Union Executives;
  • Workplace Occupational Health and Safety Committee meetings twice weekly (in addition to regular meetings);
  • weekly Policy Health & Safety Committee meetings (this is in addition to the regular quarterly meetings);
  • regular check-ins with Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) President, which are currently occurring twice daily; and,
  • enhanced communication between Regional Directors General and Regional union representatives across the country.
• I have also spoken with the President of the CIU. During that conversation, he reiterated the Government’s commitment to ensuring the health and safety of frontline employees.
• Feedback from the union concerning enhanced communication measures has generally been positive.
• Many of the measures deployed by the CBSA continue to alleviate the concerns raised by the CIU. It:
  • deployed over 90 additional Border Services Officers (BSOs) to reduce the strain on front line staff;
  • continuously works to realign officer schedules (hours and locations), based on operational volumes, to ensure continued service delivery;
  • ensures that all BSOs have the personal protective equipment needed;
  • sanitizes countertops and other frequently touched areas in the CBSA hall and the arrivals area using a specialized cleaning solution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to its officers; and
  • receives confirmation from airport authorities that frequent cleaning of the communal areas and kiosks, which falls under their responsibility, is being done.
• The CBSA remains in constant contact with officials from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada to ensure up-to-date guidance is provided to officers.

Background:

Despite a good level of engagement with the CIU throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union maintains an expectation that Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Quarantine Officers be onsite at all ports of entry. Currently, Border Services Officers are supported at the four airports receiving international flights (Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver) by on-site PHAC Designated Screening Officers and Quarantine Officers. At other ports of entry, PHAC Quarantine Officers are available through a Central Notification telephone line.

PHAC has advised that the following resources are available:

• Screening Officers – In addition to Border Services Officers who are trained as Screening Officers under the Quarantine Act, PHAC has placed additional Screening Officers to assist Border Services Officers in screening. These are not Quarantine Officers and the final determination on quarantine needs to come from a Quarantine Officer by calling the Central Notification Service. The primary duties of PHAC Screening Officers are to:
  • assess signs and symptoms of ill travellers identified. Border Services Officers remain the primary screening officers to assess travellers under the Quarantine Act;
  • assist PHAC’s Central Notification Service Quarantine Officer by performing temperature checks of ill travellers; and
  • assist the CBSA Border Services Officers, by calling the PHAC’s Central Notification Service to complete a remote health assessment over the phone.
• Information Officers – This is a new function implemented in January 2020 when enhanced measures were put in place for Hubei province. An Information Officer’s role is to provide printed materials to travellers, answer basic questions related to COVID-19, and point travellers to sources of information. These officers are not medical professionals, so their scope is limited to promoting awareness and providing information to travellers. These employees stand at a PHAC kiosk in the luggage retrieval area for international arrivals. They are currently placed in Vancouver, Montreal airports, and in Terminal 3 at Pearson Airport in Toronto. They do not play any role in screening or assessing passengers.

In addition, the President of the CIU recently raised concerns with the changes introduced in OIC 11 regarding asylum claimants, particularly the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement at land ports of entry.

Contacts:

Approved by: Louise Youdale, Vice-President, Human Resources Branch, [REDACTED]

Date modified:

2020-10-21