The Union of Taxation Employees responds to the Auditor General's report on CRA Call Centres

OTTAWA, Nov. 22, 2017 /CNW/ - The Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) welcomes the results of the report tabled yesterday in Parliament by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) on the Call Centres at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

We agree with the findings and recommendations contained in the report.

For a number of years, UTE has been advocating for the CRA to provide more and better training to its call centre agents in order to deliver excellent quality services to Canadians. Our members working in CRA Call Centres are committed to do just that but they need to get better support from the employer.

We are not surprised that the report of the OAG confirms our longstanding concerns but we also acknowledge the CRA's commitment to improve the delivery of service.

Our union appreciates the fact that CRA has increased its average number of agents by 23% in the last five years but the volume of calls has increased by 27% during the same period of time. Also, the report of the OAG doesn't take into consideration the closure of the face-to-face counter service in CRA offices in 2012 and 2013 where 283 front-line agents were removed from operations. We believe there are not enough agents to handle the volume of calls and the OAG report demonstrates this very clearly when it shows 29 million calls are blocked yearly. We also believe that the CRA should consider reinstating the face-to-face counter service in its offices across the country.

The Union of Taxation Employees represents more than 25,000 employees working at the Canada Revenue Agency.

SOURCE Public Service Alliance of Canada

Please contact Daniel Camara, Executive Assistant to the UTE National President, at [phone], for all media requests.

Related Links

http://psacunion.ca/