Communique about Jobs Evaluation

Dear Fellow Members,
Your bargaining team has received numerous emails from concerned members about the Job Evaluation Plans and specifically the process undertaken by the Canada Post Corporation and the Association of Postal Officials of Canada to establish the Plans. We believe that an explanation of the process is required so that all members are fully informed.
The first step in the creation of any job evaluation plan is the establishment of what an employer wishes to value. An employer will then determine which factors will be used to evaluate jobs. Each factor will have degrees of intensity and each factor will be provided a weight. An employer will then draft questions which are to be answered by employees performing each job. The answers to the questions are then run through the degrees and factors and based on the weighting a total number of points are determined for each job.
In our case, the Corporation wanted the Plans to reflect its values and priorities. The Corporation was of the opinion that jobs with subordinates had to have a greater value and priority than jobs without subordinates. And within the category of jobs with subordinates, those jobs in the plant environment would be given greater value than those outside the plant environment. The Corporation’s rationale was that jobs with subordinates in the plant environment have a greater impact on the Corporation’s overall success. This was a significant change from the Job Evaluation Plan for our operations and enabler members from that which had existed since approximately 1994.
The Corporation then established four criteria; skills, responsibility, effort and working conditions which respects the principles of human rights and pay equity legislation.
These criteria were then used to establish fourteen factors; product knowledge, process knowledge, specialized knowledge, communication skills, computer skills, financial resources, physical resources, supervision, problem solving, effort, working conditions, hazards, work related stressors and supervisory complexity. Each factor is defined by degrees of intensity of each accountability and responsibility.
The Association took on a greater role when the parties drafted the questionnaire and participated in the focus group sessions. Once the questionnaires were completed, the parties then reviewed the information provided by the answers given and agreed on the degree for each factor. After, the Corporation ascribed degree to each factor and was run through the software model created which provided a resulting point value for each job. The jobs were then ranked by their corresponding point value. 
Based on the values and priorities the Corporation considered significant, it determined the weighting for each factor. For example, supervision was given a weighting of 10% and supervisory complexity was given a weighting of 20%. It is clear that the Corporation has provided significant value to these factors given the weight afforded to them.
These results were then provided to the bargaining teams and the number of classification levels and salary bands were negotiated. Each job was then placed into their new classification level with the corresponding salary band.
Members who do not agree with the placement of their job within the new classification shall be entitled to request a review of their job and the classification to a Joint Review Committee.
It is extremely important to note that the new classification levels and corresponding salary bands will have three results:
1.     Members whose current salaries are lower than the minimum of the salary band that their job has been placed in shall have their salary increased to the minimum of that band. Thereafter, they will be entitled to the normal annual wage increases and annual pay progression, should they qualify.
2.     Members whose current salaries fall above the minimum and below the maximum of the salary band which their job has been placed in shall be placed into that band without any adjustment. Thereafter, they will be entitled to the normal annual wage increases and annual pay progression, should they qualify.
3.     Members whose current salaries are above the maximum of the salary band which their job has been placed in shall not suffer any loss of salary. They shall be afforded salary protection and receive pensionable lump sum payments equal to the wage increases negotiated in the collective agreement for a yet to be determined time period. 
We hope the above information clarifies and answers many of the questions members have with regards to the New Job Evaluation Plans. We encourage all members to continue to visit the APOC website for further updates as we seek to finalize a collective agreement.