Membership Update – December 14th, 2022
Your Executive Board has been very busy over the last few weeks since our last update. We have been involved in Collective Agreement implementation meetings with the Company, Mark and Karen attended the Unifor BC Regional Council Meeting, we met with the YYC Membership, Breanne attended a 3-day course on Grievance Handling with Unifor and our scheduling review committees have met with our Workforce Teams. In addition, we have been there for our members; supporting them in meetings with the Company, working with them over the phone or by email and lending an ear to listen.
In our Collective Agreement there is a Letter of Understanding (LOU) that outlines the need for safer working conditions when working alone between the hours of 2100 and 0600 at the airport. We have appointed Riccia Kay in YVR and Karen D’Costa Stegemenn to our Working Alone Focus Group and they will be working with the Bases’ OSH teams to develop recommendations to the Corporate Policy Committee in the New Year. The Executive Board has also been working together to finalize our Bylaws for our Local. In the New Year you will be invited to review the Bylaws which will govern our Local and be given the opportunity to vote on them. We have accomplished a lot over these last few months since ratification and are looking forward to 2023!
SHIFT EXTENSIONS
We have already seen multiple snow and weather events in our bases that have affected members ending their shifts on time or getting home safely. During IROP situations at our workplaces, the CBA under Article X, Scheduling _-9 Shift Extensions it states:
_-9.01 Employees may be required by the Company to remain at work after their scheduled shift end time if operationally required due to circumstances such as irregular operations or day-of staff shortages.
_-9.02 If the extension is greater than thirty (30) minutes, Qualified Employees will be solicited by position and in seniority order. An Employee may decline a shift extension if there are enough Qualified Employees with less seniority than the Employee in order to cover the Company’s operational requirements.
In discussions with members, we have found that both Bases, YVR and YYC, local leadership teams have been violating the Collective Agreement by instating forced or mandatory stays. This is not an acceptable practice, and it must stop. We have submitted a Grievance to the Company on behalf of YVR and YYC employees regarding recent forced stays in both bases. We will communicate the outcome in the following weeks.
At this time, we are asking our members that when they are faced with this situation, to follow the rule of “work now, grieve later” if you do not feel comfortable challenging leadership on their decision to force mandatory stays. Please immediately text or email one of the union representatives from your Base, to make them aware that this is happening. However, if you cannot stay at work due to family circumstances, you are able to decline without fear of reprimand.
INCLEMENT WEATHER AND SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
The Collective Agreement also has language in it that speaks to poor weather and employees getting home safely under Article X – Inclement Weather and Article X – Special Circumstances.
Both Sherwin, YYC District Chairperson and Breanne, YVR District Chairperson have had conversations with local leadership teams regarding the intention of this language and the Unions expectations from the Company.
The Articles read:
ARTICLE X – INCLEMENT WEATHER
_-1.01 As a result of severe weather/natural disaster, the Company may, at its discretion, provide hotel rooms, meal vouchers, and/or transportation to and from an Employee’s home to those Employees required by the Company to maintain the operation.
ARTICLE X – SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
_-1.01 The Company may provide transportation to Employees who are required by the Company to remain at work past their scheduled release time and, as a result, have no access to public transit or other means to travel home.
If you do not have a safe way home from work during severe weather such as freezing rain, snowstorm etc., please reach out to your leadership team at that time. This also applies to employees who are impacted by public transportation that is no longer running outside of their operating hours. It is important to note that these supports are in place when transit time is impacted considerably, outside of your regular scheduled shift and routine transit habits. Should these situations arise members are asked to seek out a GSM on shift for support to pre-pay via corporate credit card. Should they be unavailable you may refer to the SharePoint site or email ESA on how to submit personal receipts via JDE for reimbursement.
HOURS OF WORK
The language in the Collective Agreement that speaks to the hour's employees work falls under Article Scheduling. We have heard from our Members that they are confused as to how many hours they can be scheduled per week over the 8-week scheduling period.
Full time employees will be scheduled 40 hours each week. They must maintain a minimum of 912 hours over a 3 eight-week scheduling period (24 weeks). This means that Full time employees could drop up to 48 hours over the 3 eight-week scheduling period.
Part time employees may see up to 40 hours in a single week scheduled, however they would then see a reduction within their schedule in subsequent weeks to ensure the average threshold is met.
Week 1: scheduled 40 hours Week 2: scheduled 20 hours
Week 3: scheduled 15 hours Week 4: scheduled 25 hours
Week 5: scheduled 30 hours Week 6: scheduled 30 hours
Week 7: scheduled 20 hours Week 8: scheduled 40 hours
In the above example the total average hours over the 8-week schedule are 220 hours. This falls within the language threshold of minimum 160 hours and maximum 240 hours.
Casual employees may see up to 30 hours in a single week (CBA language states up to three shifts per week), however they would then see a reduction within their schedule in subsequent weeks to ensure the average threshold is met.
Week 1: scheduled 30 hours Week 2: scheduled 10 hours
Week 3: scheduled no hours Week 4: scheduled 30 hours
Week 5: scheduled 20 hours Week 6: scheduled 20 hours
Week 7: scheduled no hours Week 8: scheduled 20 hours
In the above example the total average hours over the 8-week schedule are 130 hours. This meets the language requirements of no more than 160 hours over the 8-week scheduling period. The above example also ties into a provision that you would be required to work an average of one shift equal to the number of weeks you were scheduled by the Company. So, in this example for the 8-week average period the casual employee was not scheduled hours in Week 3 & 7, meaning they would be required to maintain at least 6 shifts for this 8-week period.
RECURRENT MANDATORY TRAINING
The Collective Agreement has brought a positive change in seeing e-learnings scheduled on work time, to provide a better work/life balance in addition to being paid. We view this as a huge win for membership but need to address some recent issues. The language states:
_-1.01 The Company shall schedule each Employee time to complete any recurrent mandatory training while on shift.
_-1.02 In the event scheduled training is unable to be completed due to operational requirements, the Employee will, before the end of the shift, contact the Daily Duty Coordinator if they are in the Guest Service classification, or their manager if in a different classification, to have the training rescheduled to another shift. If training cannot be rescheduled by the required completion date, a request will be made to their manager to complete the training on their own time.
_-1.03 An Employee who is authorized to and completes required training at home will be compensated in accordance with the published completion time of the training module.
_-1.04 When an Employee returns from an absence of 90 days or more, the Company shall grant reasonable time at the beginning of a shift when the Employee returns to catch up on missed emails, read and signs, and any other required reading prior to working.
It is important that Members understand the intent and meaning of the above language. Should extenuating circumstances arise, with pre-approval, you will be permitted to complete from home and compensated accordingly. It is important to note that doing so without approval will not result in your shift timing being reduced, if the time is still operationally required, you will be tasked within your dedicated position to work. Should you complete the e-learnings on shift and finish early, if the operation does not require you, you may request VTO to leave early (this time will be unpaid, but hours will count towards your averaging commitments.)
CONTACTS
The Executive Board Members have new email addresses and will be phasing out our current ones by the end of February. We are asking that members please start using our new emails effective immediately.
Karen Berry, President
[email protected]
(705) 828-7795
Mark Enns, Secretary Treasurer
[email protected]
(778)552-2344
Kara Jahn, Communications Officer
[email protected]
(778) 960-0933
For all Membership inquiries related to scheduling, grievances, or base inquiries please contact the appropriate District chairperson
Breanne Laihow, YVR District chair
[email protected]
(778)887-6156
Sherwin Antonio, YYC District Chair
[email protected]
(403) 660-7154
Elaine Keras, trustee
[email protected]
(604)780-2883
Jagreet Sandhu, Trustee
[email protected]
(403) 671-5555
For General Inquiries or you aren’t sure who you should contact, please email us at [email protected]
In Solidarity,
Karen, Mark, Breanne, Sherwin, Kara, Elaine and Jagreet
Local 531 Executive Board
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