On November 4, 2013, the Corporation sat down with the Union to discuss their plans for changes to the surge casual list both at the VPDC and VMPP.
The Corporation started by stating that the current call-in system being used in Vancouver was not the system used across the country and that Ottawa was making them change to this new process. Although they could not tell us which locations were using a different system than Vancouver. It appears that their National Office in Ottawa is more concerned with removing temps from the list if they had not accepted the Corporation criteria of reasonable availability for the six (6) month period, rather than offering work to the senior temporaries.
The Corporation also informed us that the changes to the call-in system would carry over to the new Pacific Processing Plant (PPC).
The difference between the new system and what we were using in Vancouver appears to be that here; we make more than one offer/call to the senior temporaries that do not have an assignment. This meant that the senior Temporary would be called several times in a 24 hour period if they did not have an assignment and they could use their seniority to accept an assignment that fit into their life. This has been the Local Union’s interpretation of the clause 44.12 of the Collective Agreement for many years as it reads:
“The Corporation shall offer work of less than twenty (20) days in order ofseniority to those unassigned temporary employees whose names appearon the approximate call-in list.”
CPC Ottawa had told the local managers of PCNR that they can only make one (1) call per day to unassigned temporaries. Local management told us that even if we have one (1) list for all casuals, once someone on that list refuses the assignment offer they would not call that person until the next day.
The Local Union believes that the new system is a violation of several clauses in the Collective Agreement and that there is an obligation of the Corporation to limit the number of call- in lists in order to promote as much as possible full time work for Temporary employees.
The Union will be filing grievances on the issue and asking that the Pacific Region Office move this quickly through the system to get a resolution to this unfair treatment for casual employees. The only issue the employer was prepared to discuss was the number of call-in lists and the ability for Temporary employees to transfer to another list.
One of our concerns with limiting the number of calls to an unassigned temporary would be if a senior temporary was on a list that wasn’t being called very often for assignments -how fast would they switch to another list?
This would also apply to temporaries that need to change their call-in list because of changes to childcare and their other jobs and any other reason that is impacting their availability.
The Corporation stated to us that they would not restrict temporaries from moving from one (1) list to another and that the temporary would be able to move to another within ten (10) days. During those ten (10) days, the temporary would be called on the list they are currently working on.
So although we have officially not agreed to the system the employer wants to implement, this is what the employer will implement:
- From January until February 9 or March 24, 2014 depending what plant you are working at, there will be nine (9) lists in total in the Vancouver Local.
- One list for each shift at the VPDC
- One list for each shift for the fourth floor in the VMPP
- One list for each shift for VMPP docks
Once we have moved to the PPC, there will be three (3) lists, one for each shift and temporaries will be trained for all the work and sections in the PPC. This may limit some members for work while they train everyone.
We know that this is not the best system for temporary employees, however we would like to see the multi call system that is currently in place continue, but at the present time we will have to have a third party decide who is right about the language of the Collective Agreement.
In Solidarity,
Pat Bertrand
1st Vice President
CK/cupe-3338