“Reasonable availability” of On-call Temporary Employees at the VMPP

It has been brought to the Union’s attention that Canada Post has recently sent out a letter to temporary employees regarding “reasonable availability”.  In that letter, dated June 28, 2011, Canada Post advised temporary employees that their continued employment would be subject to their ability to show “reasonable availability”.

Is 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 stand-by in order to keep their jobs.

The collective agreement states that the employment of a temporary employee may be terminated if he or she has not shown reasonable availability in any consecutive six (6) month period.  However, the collective agreement does not define reasonable availability.

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.

The question of “reasonable availability” has been a topic of discussion between the parties for quite some time.  In fact, the parties met at consultation on February 26, 2008, and the following is what transpired during that consultation.

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 administered to temporary employees by an automated machine.  The Eclipse System is a form of an Automated Employee Call Management System (AECMS), that is programmed to contact employees at home or at other designated contact numbers for the purpose of offering work assignments.  The Eclipse 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 being recorded as a refusal.

Like all automated programs, the Eclipse contains flaws.  The system is programmed in such a way that employees are automatically contacted for work assignments regardless of shift.  The Eclipse 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 Eclipse.  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.

“Reasonable availability” during
periods of absence

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 Eclipse 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 Eclipse calls for additional shifts.  Typically, but not always, this occurs on Sundays, when casual employees are at work and unavailable when the Eclipse commences offering Monday day shift 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.

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,