First Vice President
Summer 2002
If members of the Foreign Service Community Association (FSCA) wish to read a single paragraph detailing progress made in the past year on policies affecting spouses in the Canadian foreign service, they need read no more than this one. No changes are being implemented, but at a meeting in January, spouses were asked by Deputy Minister Gaetan Lavertu to be patient.
Department management says it is more than aware of the effects of lack of compensation, the absence of a pension contribution and the inability of spouses to claim EI: a lowering of recruiting standards for young recruits; a rise in the attrition rate; the loss of experienced employees, their collective memory and accumulated skills.
DFAIT managers know that the employees of the Canadian foreign service have spouses and partners with similar skills. The necessity of a second family income is no less in this population than it is in the rest of Canada. We are assured that the current ministers and their predecessors are fully aware of these facts, and sympathize. We may be grateful for those comments, but no changes have taken place. Without the implementation of policies to improve spouses'and partners' incomes, supportive words lead only to cynicism. However, if they wish to be apprised of the ongoing tactics to press our concerns, members of the FSCA should read on.
The Spousal Task Force has not met this year. Its mandate since the recommendations that were made in 1999 has been to monitor implementation. In the absence of funding there has been no implementation, which was made clear to us by Suzanne Laporte, the ADM, Human Resources.
At that same meeting we were informed that the proposed increase in funding for Community Coordinators at posts was not forthcoming either. We were also told that the results of the FS Study would impact on budgeting for spousal issues. The FSCA was assured it would be consulted at all stages of the FS Study that was sponsored by "stakeholders" DFAIT, CIC, PAFSO and Treasury Board and performed by consultants, the most recent among them a comparative study of human resources policies by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which designed a survey of other foreign services and international organizations and companies.
We have seen a draft of the final report. As the process progressed it became clear that we were excluded from the information loop, so a working relationship with PAFSO was established and we contributed our comments through them.
We are disappointed with the report as it relates to spousal/partner issues. "Best Practises" have not been identified, although at the outset we were told that they would be the most valuable contributions of the study. Levels of pension contributions were not established in the other foreign services surveyed, nor whether locally-engaged salaries or home-based salaries were paid to spouses/partners who were employed at posts.
The data is not going to be mined for further information, such as whether foreign services that pay pension contributions for partners have attrition levels that are higher or lower than Canada's. Are the countries that pay highest salary rates to FSs those who pay compensation to spouses? At what rate?
Spousal employment rates have not been established. Since the FS Study seems to have little to contribute to the addressing of spousal financial concerns, the FSCA executive decided it made sense to examine other methods of publicizing those issues.
Information on lack of spousal pension and the ability to collect EI by spouses/partners who had contributed was sent to some of the MPs who sit on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs (SCFAIT). Questions were asked of Minister Pettigrew at the meeting that took place on April 16. Since then, I have learned that the most effective method of providing information to the committee members so they can decide if spousal issues will be on the agenda of the SCFAIT meetings. That information package is being designed, and will be distributed soon. FSCA representatives hope to appear before the SCFAIT as witnesses.
PAFSO demonstration
At the May 7 executive meeting, the association decided not to march in support of PAFSO in an information picket outside the Pearson Building on May 14. The reasons: the FSCA is accommodated in the Pearson Building, is supported financially by DFAIT and is not a union. However, several spouses and partners marched in the picket to support PAFSO's aims. It is important to note that a central element of this negotiation process for PAFSO has been a demand for financial compensation for spouses and partners when on posting.
I would like to add a personal note. In a few months, I will be moving to Nova Scotia with my husband who retired from DFAIT in 1999. We'll be close to three of our grandsons as we start a new life: rotationality strikes yet again! Until we leave I'll sit on the executive with responsibility for pensions, but will no longer be an elected member. After that, any assistance I can give at the other end of my e-mail will be gladly offered. It's such a long battle B if only we had achieved greater success.
Nancy Fraser