On May 30, 2012, Arbitrator Tom Jolliffe sustained a Union policy grievance that was filed in response to a Canada Post staffing policy that was implemented in Letter Carrier depots throughout Canada in 2009. Under its new staffing policy, Canada Post instructed supervisory staff to exclude unassigned temporary employees from the short-term coverage of Letter Carrier absences as one of the steps preceding compulsory overtime. The result of the policy was that many Letter Carriers were forced to work overtime while temporary employees remained at home awaiting work assignments.
In response to Canada Post’s new policy, the Union filed National Policy Grievance N00-07-00028.
Article 17.04 is a mandatory staffing process that was first negotiated by the Letter Carriers’ Union of Canada (LCUC). It provides for the coverage of unstaffed Letter Carrier routes when there are insufficient relief employees available to cover absences. The staffing process requires Canada Post to cover absences by first offering extended hours and overtime on a volunteer basis within the depot. If insufficient volunteers are available to accept extended hours and overtime within a depot, Canada Post must then canvass for volunteers outside of the depot, post office wide. Ultimately, if insufficient volunteers are available, Canada Post may resort to “any other means”, the stage where it may administer compulsory overtime in accordance with the principles of Article 15.14.
The Union has long maintained that the Corporation is contractually obligated by Article 15.14 to minimize compulsory overtime by utilizing unassigned temporary employees to cover short-term Letter Carrier absences (or other available employees such as MSCs, RSMCs, and Group 1 staff) prior to forcing employees to work compulsory additional hours.
Although Canada Post consistently assigns temporary employees to backfill long-term Letter Carrier absences, Canada Post argued at arbitration that it had no obligation to use temporary employees, nor any obligation to call them into work before going to compulsory overtime in order to cover short-term absences.
Article 15.14 of the Collective Agreement states that in the event that the Corporation is unable to obtain sufficient employees to work overtime by following the system of equal opportunity in descending order, then the Corporation shall, in accordance with the system of equal opportunity, assign the required number of employees to work overtime in an ascending order from the appropriate list.
In contrast to Canada Post’s argument in defense of its policy, Article 15.14 explicitly states that Canada Post must put in place reasonable measures to minimize compulsory overtime:
Where standards of service and plant capacity permit, the Corporation will take reasonable measures to ensure that assignments to work overtime in ascending order of the appropriate list will be minimized.
In his award, Arbitrator Jolliffe held that Canada Post had implemented its new policy without “adequate regard” for its obligation to take reasonable measures to minimize compulsory overtime:
In any event, I completely accept that this directive had no adequate regard for the reasonableness obligations contained in article 15.14 of the collective agreement to minimize the use of compulsory overtime, especially given the historical use of temporary employees, regularly used prior to the Dulude award which did no damage to the wording of article 15.14. That award provided no foundation for putting in place a new system which made the use of compulsory overtime for letter carriers commonplace and preferred as opposed to minimized.
This award confirms that Canada Post continues to be obligated to comply with the staffing process set out by Article 17.04, which requires the coverage of absences on a volunteer basis up to and including the step of “any other means”, at which point it must take reasonable steps in order to minimize compulsory overtime.
In Solidarity,
Ken Mooney
Regional Grievance Officer
June 15/12 cope 225