Local Consultation: “Reasonable availability” of on-call Temporary employees at the VMPP
On February 26, 2008, Canada Post and CUPW met to discuss some of the issues arising from a letter that was recently sent to temporary employees assigned to Group 1 surge casual call-in lists at the VMPP. In that letter, dated January 24, 2008, Canada Post advised temporary employees that their continued employment would be subject to their ability to show “reasonable availability”:
As a surge casual employee, you are in an on-call position. You may be called on the same day as needed and must be available and willing to report for work. You must demonstrate reasonable availability when called, and failure to do so may result in removal from the temporary employee call-in list. The minimum standard is the acceptance on 50% or more of work offers.
As a result of Canada Post’s correspondence, many temporary employees feel extremely apprehensive about declining work assignments. Other temporary employees have expressed that they feel as if they must now be on 24 hour standby in order to keep their jobs. In addition, the tone of Canada Post’s recent correspondence was considered to be too militaristic.
While Canada Post has the right to expect “reasonable availability” from its temporary employees, its standard must be reasonable. The Union maintains that “reasonable availability” should not be determined by a 50% acceptance rate, but by the individual facts and circumstances surrounding an employee’s ability to accept work assignments.
As a result of the concerns that were brought forward regarding the Corporation’s recent correspondence, the parties met to consult on the problems arising from the new standard of “reasonable availability”.
At consultation, the Corporation stated that it would not “back off” the 50% acceptance rate, but it qualified that position by stating that it would review individual circumstances when auditing the acceptance rates of surge casual employees.
The following items reflect the other discussions that took place during consultation.
Only one refusal per day
Work assignments are now administered to temporary employees by an automated machine. The Automated Employee Call Management System (AECMS) is programmed to contact employees at home or at other designated contact numbers for the purpose of offering work assignments. The AECMS leaves a voicemail that outlines the details of the work assignment after which employees are allowed ten minutes in which to respond. In the absence of a response, the voicemail offer is been recorded as a refusal.
Like all automated programs, the AECMS contains flaws. The system is programmed in such a way that employees are automatically contacted for work assignments regardless of shift. The AECMS is programmed to contact employees at home even if they are at work! It is possible to receive up to three offers per day, which, without response, would be recorded as three refusals on a single calendar date!
The Union pointed out that the collective agreement states that temporary employees shall not work beyond five days per week barring exceptional circumstances. Therefore, even if an employee accepts one of the work assignments offered on a given day, he or she might still be offered up to two additional work assignments per day. When tallied at the end of the month, a temporary employee who accepts daily work assignments might nonetheless fail to have achieved a 50% acceptance rate! The Union observed that it would be quite unreasonable for an employee who accepts daily work assignments to be in breach of the 50% acceptance rate contemplated by Canada Post’s definition of “reasonable availability”.
The Union took the position that employees should not be charged with more than one refusal per calendar day.
In response, Canada Post advised that henceforth, “reasonable availability would be based on days offered work, not shifts”.
Lack of notice when offering work assignments
Another ongoing complaint has been the lack of notice given to temporary employees when work assignments have been administered by the AECMC. For Canada Post, one of the advantages of an automated phone system is that its administrative staff is spared from the wrath of employees who have been given notice of a work assignment at the last minute.
Unfortunately, many temporary employees have not been able to accept work assignments because of the last minute notice. During consultation, Canada Post acknowledged that it has been recording these occasions as refusals.
In the Union’s view, this is a patently unreasonable practice. The Union took the position that reasonable notice is required and that employees who are not been provided with reasonable notice should not be penalized for their inability to accept the offer of a work assignment at the last minute.
Initially, Management’s response was that “a refusal is a refusal regardless of the circumstance”.
Management later took the position that “when auditing acceptance rates, we will not count as a refusal those instances when a surge was given less than one hour notice and didn’t accept”.
For many employees, one hour’s notice will still not provide sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements to report for work, particularly when taking into consideration transportation and childcare needs. The Union has requested that the notification period be extended to ninety minutes. Canada Post is currently reviewing the Union’s proposal to extend the notification period.
“Reasonable availability” during periods of absence
At consultation, the parties discussed how and which absences would be removed from the calculation of “reasonable availability”. In a previous correspondence provided to temporary employees, Canada Post stated that employees should advise administration if and when they will not be available for work because of disability, maternity leave, parental leave, adoption leave, or union leave without pay.
By providing such notice, employees would in theory be removed from the AECMC call circuit.
As of late, though, there have been mixed messages sent out to temporary employees. In one instance, a temporary employee was told that she would need to be absent for two weeks before her name would be stricken from the AECMC call list.
The Union noted that the collective agreement provides for absences other than those identified by Canada Post’s correspondence. Temporary employees may be absent due to bereavement leave. Employees might also be summoned for jury duty and as a consequence be unavailable to accept offers of work. In those circumstances, an employee might be absent and unavailable for work for relatively short periods of time.
Furthermore, temporary employees may also be absent from work for reasons not specifically prescribed by the collective agreement. For example, the Union noted that the Canada Labour Code provides temporary employees with the entitlement of vacation leave.
Canada Post response to these concerns was that a temporary employee on an approved period of leave of one week or longer would not be contacted by the AECMC and would thus not be charged with any refusals during that period. Clearly, this response does not resolve the Union’s concerns regarding all periods, but any issues that arise in the future in terms of absences of less than one week can be dealt with on an individual basis.
Present at work but unavailable for work assignments?
Another item of discussion revolved around the administration of work assignments to employees who have accepted work assignments and are thus not home to accept AECMC calls for additional shifts. Typically, but not always, this occurs on Sundays, when casual employees are at work and unavailable when the AECMC commences offering Monday dayshift work assignments.
The collective agreement requires Canada Post to offer work assignments in order of seniority, and in the Union’s view, employees should not miss out on an opportunity for a work assignment while they are at work for Canada Post. In fact, it is the Union’s view that it is a violation of the collective agreement to bypass employees for work assignments while they are present at work. On February 26, 2008, Canada Post stated that it would review the existing call schedule to determine if there is a better way to contact employees who are already at work. On March 7, 2008, the Union proposed that work assignments for Sundays and Mondays be offered in advance, on Saturdays, so that employees would have advance notice. In response, Canada Post indicated that it would offer assignments in this manner in the future.
It is hoped that this bulletin will alleviate some of the concerns that have been brought forward by temporary employees at the VMPP. For more information regarding your rights under the collective agreement, please speak to your shop steward or feel free to call any of the full-time officers at our local office.
In solidarity,
Ken Mooney
President