Increased sharing of duties and responsibilities among the issues to be discussed
Following the start of regional negotiations prior to renewing a collective agreement with daycare centre employees, an association representing daycare managers in Laval and Montreal says it wants to draw attention to the principal role and responsibilities of managers in daycare centres.
Managers’ responsibilities
According to the Association patronale des CPE Montréal-Laval (APCPE), general managers at the Laval and Montreal CPEs are responsible among other things for planning and organizing work teams, managing and evaluating programs, and fulfilling the needs of children and parents.
The APCPE, which represents 64 CPEs, says its CPE general managers are expected to have the necessary qualifications to fulfill all the following tasks:
Development of services
Strategic planning
Ability to adapt services according to needs
Project development
Quality control of services
Leadership
Personnel management
Ability to adapt
Coaching
Mobilization of personnel
Operational management
Optimisation of activities and resources
Problem solving
Decision-taking
Recruitment
Schedule management
Interpersonal relations and communication
Efficient communications
Conflict resolution
The APCPE says its CPE general managers are dealing on a daily basis with support staff, educators, food service workers and other types of employees. The APCPE also says that the current negotiations with CPE staff are taking place with other issues in the background, including labour shortages, potential impacts on children being served, quality of services and financial considerations.
Lilia Lemire-Bertrand, director-general of CPE Génies en Herbe on Saint-Martin Blvd. in Pont-Viau, said in an interview with the Laval News that the question of “co-management” or increased sharing of responsibilities was an issue that came up in past negotiations between CPE managers and the workers.
Smooth negotiations expected
“Each time we have had negotiations, this has been part of the discussions between the union and the management side,” she said. “To understand the context, we are just beginning the negotiations and we have every hope that they will go well.”
Despite the managers’ position as overseers of CPEs, Lemire-Bertrand maintained that their role isn’t authoritarian and there are many shared tasks. “For example, I work on a daily basis with the entire work team and we all work together,” she said.
‘Everything we do is for the children and their parents,’ says Lilia Lemire-Bertrand, general manager of CPE Génies en Herbe on Saint-Martin Blvd. in Pont-Viau
“When we talk about co-management, this takes into account that the team is always working together in all decisions, because we work together daily. And with the pandemic, this has become even more so because we needed to adapt to the situation quickly.”
Many issues on the table
Asked whether the negotiations could lead to a clearer division of duties between managers and employees, Lemire-Bertrand said, “For sure that in the various aspects there will be details to be worked out. On the other hand, the present negotiations are not just about co-management.
“Everything is being taken into account to ensure that we continue to work together on all the issues, including the labour shortage, to ensure that we continue to have the means to work efficiently and flexibly. We can’t continue to manage as it was done 20, 30 or 40 years ago.
“We have to modernize our ways of doing things, and we also have to have stability in our operations,” she added. “And, of course, everything we do is for the children and their parents. So, we take that greatly into consideration in all the decisions we make.”
