One of Canada Post’s key demands during the past two rounds of bargaining was to get some sort of flexibility or labour savings for the delivery of parcels on weekends.
During the last round, the parties negotiated Appendix “JJ” which would allow for the creation of a parcel delivery workforce. CPC has rarely used this provision. This round they put forward a new proposal for a Temporary Peak Period (TPP) workforce.
Arbitrator’s Decision
The Arbitrator accepted Canada Post’s proposal, with one very important amendment. Canada Post can now implement, in any depot it chooses, a TPP workforce to assist with the heavier volumes of mail and parcels.
This workforce can be used from the beginning of November to the end of January each year. All existing rules for staffing and the assignment of overtime continue to apply with one exception. TPP employees will be offered extended hours prior to going to city wide overtime.
The one key amendment is that CPC can only remove work from routes when the regular employee has indicated they do not wish to work the overtime on their own route.
CPC wanted the ability to arbitrarily remove work from any route.
Weekend Parcel Delivery
The Arbitrator refused our proposed amendment that TPP employees could only be scheduled from Monday to Friday. She is allowing Canada Post to schedule TPP employees on any day of the week. We are not sure how this will impact the delivery of parcels on weekends because all the other language relating to work on weekends, statutory holidays and unscheduled days remains unchanged. There will be ongoing consultations with Canada Post regarding the implementation of the TPP workforce. We will keep you informed.