Anita, Rena, and Michelle returned from Vancouver today with great news for our members. They were attending and participating in the arbitration hearing regarding the use of TTOC’s doing the work of EA’s. We would like to share the outcome with all our Members.
As was discussed at a previous membership meeting, the members agreed to retain the use of outside legal counsel for this arbitration. We used the same legal firm as was used for the EA wage grievance. Due to excellent legal counsel and the evidence gathered from our members, the Union had a strong and solid case. The Union was in a position to request a payout. It would have been minimal (a couple of hundred dollars) and would have benefited only a small population of EA’s with a one-time payout.
Considering the Union was in a strong position, and in consultation and advice from our lawyer, we bartered language around the recruitment of casuals and introduced a proposal of reinstatement of the use of vacation time for all 10-month employees.
To ensure the security of the bargaining unit, the Employer is now legally bound to actively recruit casuals, including the attendance at job fairs at Selkirk College. They are required to provide the Union with monthly updates as to the hiring of casuals. This includes a permanent posting for casuals. We agreed to a periodic 5-day posting closure for maintenance of the platform.
All 10-month Employees, this means your use of vacation time has been REINSTATED!
We are extremely fortunate to have language in our collective agreement regarding vacation time as this is a time when other locals are receiving a payout of vacation on every cheque. We now have a legal and binding document protecting our right to use vacation time when school is in session. We did agree to the giving of 10 days notice prior to vacation requests.
We settled 2 major arbitrations at one time. It was a 2-for-1 Tuesday!
We would like to thank all our members for the information you provided for both grievances, allowing us to go forward with solid evidence. We would also like to extend a special thank you and shout out to Anita Early and Rena Bens for their testimony, to Mary Defeo and Kathy Centrone for being on standby, as well as Claire Mobbs and Krista Brackett for agreeing to come forward and testify if necessary.