UPDATE / A.P.O.C. Negotiations 2014 Q & A
As a result of questions we are now starting to receive from Members across the country, the following is being developed and will be updated on the Website on a regular basis.
Although we welcome your questions, we highly encourage as many Members as possible to attend the meetings scheduled across the Country which have now been added to the Website (Communique to Members re; Logistics).
Regards,
A.P.O.C. Bargaining Team
1. I am wondering with the new agreement if the cost of the premium for (Post-Retirement) medical and dental benefits are going to increase and if you know the amount of the increase?
Thank you for your question regarding Post Retirement benefits.
There will be no change regarding EHCP benefits for any member who is still currently employed by the Corporation or those who retire prior to April 1, 2015.
The change proposed under Article 26.6.6 is only to the contribution levels for those members who retire on or after April 1, 2015. Currently the cost of premiums is shared as follows; 75% Employer – 25% Member. If the Collective Agreement is ratified, it will change to a 50 – 50% split effective April 1, 2015. This change will apply to contributions for both the single and family coverages.
It should be noted that this change will only effect the retirees’ contributions for EHCP. The contributions levels for other benefits ex. dental have not changed.
2. Do you have an estimate on what this would cost in terms of a monthly dollar amount? I need to compare the cost of this contribution with the variance in retiring early before April 1, 2015.
To be exact, the monthly contribution for a member (single) who wishes to retire prior to April 1, 2015 based on the 75 – 25% ratio is $33.75 per month. For a member (single) that retires on or after April 1, 2015 based on the 50 – 50% ratio, the contribution will rise to $67.50 per month. Keep in mind that if you wish to have this benefit as a family, the monthly dollar figure is $61.25 prior to April 1, 2015 and $122.50 on or after April 1, 2015.
3. As a supervisor in Saskatoon I am curious as to why there is no visit by the team to Saskatoon? A meeting in Saskatoon could attract supervisors from Prince Albert, and North Battleford.
We thank you for your email. We understand your concern. As you can see by the very tight schedule, we are trying to meet with as many members across the Country as possible.
It is the Negotiating Team’s intention to attend at least one meeting in every Province. We have chosen to attend at Major Urban Centres to enable the team easy access and exit to get to our next location. As you will appreciate, at the best of times this is a very tough schedule to follow. If the team can attend all our scheduled meetings without any weather issues we will have far exceeded our expectations.
The meeting in Saskatchewan could have been scheduled in the North Saskatchewan Local with 40 members or the South Saskatchewan Local with 48 members. Our choice was based on the timing and the logistics.
We are committed to attending a meeting in every province across the Country. We do hope you understand and that you will be able to attend the meeting.
4. Why would the Association agree to give up our paid lunches if negotiations with CUPW on the same point are successful?
We appreciate your concern regarding the unpaid lunch. It should be noted that when we commenced with negotiations, this was presented to us by the Corporation. It was the Corporation’s intent that we would relinquish the paid lunch first with their thought that we would “lead by example”. The Association did not see it this way and expressed our concerns with the Corporation. We could not and would not agree to our members being on an unpaid lunch while the employees they supervise were still being paid for their lunch. There were many discussions on this topic through-out negotiations and by the end this was the compromise to reach an agreement. We discussed this amongst our group with our legal counsel and determined that if or when they get this from the employees we supervise, we would be the only employees within the Corporation to have a paid lunch. With that being said, with the employees we supervise no longer having this benefit, we would not have the likelihood of being successful in front of an Arbitrator.
5. Why is the compressed work week only on night shift and will it be offered to other shifts or groups?
This is only a Pilot Project at this time. It will take place on the night shift in the Montreal Plant and specific to the Mech. area as well as the Support function within this area. The Pilot will be for a specific period of time which will be agreed to by the Parties. Once the Pilot is completed, an assessment will be done between the Parties to see if it was successful and agreed to mutually by both parties and if so, the Corporation may then look to expand it into other areas of the country in the Mech. areas.
6. Why are the lump sum payments non-pensionable?
The Association requested that these payments be made pensionable and the Corporation was not willing to do this. The reason is that this would go directly to the DB Pension Plan funding liability. It was noted that with the signing of the other Bargaining Units C/A’s, there was only a wage increase in two of their four year agreements with no lump sum payments.
7. Will the corporation look at placing the lump sum into a registered retirement plan?
We did not approach the corporation on this. If a member wants to invest their payment they will do this on their own
8. Why is there an impasse on our seniority issue?
An impasse means that the two sides, no matter how hard we tried to argue the issue could not come to an agreement. As a result of the impasse and to achieve a tentative agreement that the members could vote on, the Parties agreed to send this issue separately to Final Offer Arbitration. It was made clear from the Membership of the disappointment of not getting a voice in the last collective agreement. The Corporation has agreed to allow the Association to choose the arbitrator.
9. What is Final Offer Arbitration?
Simply put, at Final Offer Arbitration, both Parties will prepare their submissions to put in front of the arbitrator. The submissions would include arguments, relative correspondence as well as jurisprudence to show their case why or why not the Seniority clause should be changed. The arbitrator will hear all evidence as well as review all documents and then render a decision. The arbitrator will not be allowed to amend, modify or combine the Parties position to allow him to come to a conclusion. He must choose one of the parties’ proposal as final.
10. Confirmation of the employee’s choice whether or not to use their personal vehicle for Corporation business and the consequence of using their vehicle for Corporation business; My question from this bullet is; Once a member has business insurance and reimbursement from the corporation, does the vehicle belong to them?
No, your vehicle does not belong to the Corporation however, if you voluntarily choose to use your personal vehicle, there will be specific wording in the Collective Agreement as to what your obligations are. This allows your vehicle to be utilized when at work to perform duties associated with your position (ex. – On Street Verification). Keep in mind that the only members who are currently obligated to use their vehicle and do not have an option of voluntary use are those identified as being on the Corporate Car Plan (Sales).
11. What are the next steps if the contract is not ratified by the membership?
There are two options that exist.
The first option would be that the parties would discuss whether to return back to the bargaining table in order to entertain further discussion and proposals.
The second option would be that failing option one, the Parties would proceed directly to Final Arbitration.
Q&A “UPDATE” December 3, 2014
Hi, I am unable to attend the meeting scheduled in Edmonton on December 9th.
I have a couple of questions below:
Meal Period:
Question: Does this mean we have a 37.5 hour work week or do we work an 8.5 hour day as opposed to 8 hours?
Employee Benefits Plans:
Question: What would 50% extra amount to in dollars and cents per pay cheque?
Thank you for your questions. In regards to the Meal Period, there will be no loss in pay. You will continue to be paid 40 hours per week. Your scheduled hours of work will be increased to 8 ½ hours per day with a ½ hour unpaid lunch included.
As for the dollar amount pertaining to the 50-50% post-retirement benefits, there is no change to your pay cheque. This is a payment made strictly by those who are retired. Please refer to the APOC Website under the Q&A Communique for the dollar amounts applicable to those who retire before April 1, 2015 and those who retire on or after April 1, 2015.
Currently I am unable to work and am on injury on duty leave. Will I be able to use top up credits to bring my pay up to 100% as is the case with CUPW.
As you are currently on an approved IOD, this change will not affect you unless you were to return to work and then submit another IOD claim. If this were to happen, you would be eligible for a maximum of 75% of your regular wages and would then be allowed to use top up credits if you have any available to pay you up to 100% if you are approved by the Board.
Gentleman……..with regards to the final offer selection process are the items in the tentative agreement deemed to be agreed upon? If so does that leave only the seniority issue?
Thank you for your question.
On the APOC website, there is a Q&A regarding the options if the tentative agreement is not ratified. Your question goes one step further by asking if the items deemed to be agreed upon remain, leaving only the seniority issue. The answer is no, either side has the right to remove, amend or modify their final offer to bring in front of the Arbitrator through Final Offer Selection Arbitration.
There is much discussion here regarding the window between Jan 1 and the new allotment of personal days. If personal days have been used, what will be available to members during the window?
There will be a transition period between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2015 where each member will receive 3.5 days. The new “Personal Days Year” will then begin on July 1, 2015. During the presentations on the roadshow, we will go into more details.
Good Afternoon,
Unfortunately, us DPOs who were hired as “5-year term” employees are excluded from many benefits – including medical/dental. Could you please clarify which proposed changes, if any, apply to us DPOs?
The DPO Project is not a part of Collective Bargaining. There is a Memorandum of Agreement that is applicable to Term Employees as this is a “Project” undertaken by the Corporation for a specific period of time with an end date. Term employees are covered by certain articles of the APOC Collective Agreement under Article 45.
Good evening,
Can you please let me know where are the negotiation details with regards to what was offered by the corporation. I cannot find all the terms that were negotiated on. Do we have a link that shows what is on the table? Or do we have to attend the meeting to get what was negotiated/discussed?
All the changes are posted on the APOC Website under the document titled Communique to Members. These are the changes to the Collective Agreement being proposed. If other articles in the Collective Agreement are not identified, it means they remain status quo.
As I live over 2hrs away from the nearest location holding questions, and have no hope of arranging childcare, I will be unable to attend. I have the following questions I would appreciate further insight into:
Pay
1.25% (2015) & 1.75% (2017) raises
* How does this equate vs our current system of pay ranges?
* Do we still have ranges and if so can you elaborate further?
* Is there still a July 1st raise based on performance?
The ranges will still be found under Appendix “A” of the Collective Agreement in the same format we currently use. There is no change to the July 1st incremental (Pay Progression) increase, this provision sees a member who is not at the top of their Salary band “progress” at the rate of 2% pending a minimum of a (2) “Met most Objectives” year-end rating.
OP2 vs OP3
* Can you confirm the criteria to determine if one is an OP2 vs OP3 in the “new world” of local areas?
There is no changes to these classifications. Additionally, this is not related to the current tentative collective agreement as no changes to the Job Evaluation Plan were negotiated.
Performance Appraisals
* Are you able to share the template which demonstrates how “behaviours of employees in achieving those results” will be measured?
With the new wording in the Collective Agreement, the Corporation will no longer be able to rate our members based strictly on KPI’s but will have to justify the rating based on the efforts and behaviours.
Personal Days
* How will this impact our ability to carryover PDs? This tool goes live in December, and I’d like to know how many PDs I will receive Jan 1st? Can I carryover 8.5 if I am only receiving 3.5 PDs to get me to July 1st?
The quick answer is yes, you will be able to carry-over up to 8 ½ days on January 1st. Further explanations regarding the transition period will be forthcoming shortly. Additionally, always remember that at any one time, a maximum of 12 Personal Days are allowed to be in your Personal Leave bank.
Seniority
* Is this about eliminating A & B lists? Or is something else going on here?
This is not about eliminating the “A” & “B” lists. It is about stopping the inequity of current B List members. The issue is that prior to the start of negotiations we received many correspondences from members across the country on both the “A” as well as the “B” list about the inequity of the “B” list seniority. There have been members on the B list that were hired externally and have been Supervisors for a number of years. The issue of concern is that with those hired from within the Corporation and who are eligible to carry their continuous service “seniority” over to APOC, in effect go ahead of those existing members who have been members potentially since 2009.
The Association sought to address this issue by creating a “C” list for future hires. In essence, this would not have any impact on those members currently on the “A” and “B” list. The Corporation unfortunately, did not have the same opinion as us on this issue and wished to maintain the status quo for the seniority clause.
Personal Vehicle
* So as A LAS, if I choose not to use my PV, do I cab it everywhere or do I no longer qualify for my position?
As a LAS, you are not obligated to use your personal vehicle. If you volunteer to, there will be wording in the Collective Agreement as to what your obligations will be. Review you’re Job Description and it will show under the minimum requirements that you are only required to have a valid driver’s license. You still qualify for your job.
Q & A update December 9, 2014
- RE; the 7 personal days. Can we carry the 7 over or will the carryover remain at 5 with 2 paid out?
The fundamental principle remains that in any one year, your allotment and your carry over cannot exceed 12 days. Therefore during the transition period from January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015 you will receive 3.5 days, if you have sufficient personal days remaining you could carry over up to 8.5 days at the end of this year.
2. Unfortunately many of us including myself were unable to attend due to self-imposed operational requirements. Our distance from the Holiday Inn on Dixon Road coupled with the duties of running the operation made it too difficult for many of us to attend although we certainly wanted to. Having said that I along with many of my colleagues would like the answer to the following questions:
1) Why was APOC’s largest bargaining unit not represented (again) on the negotiating committee? GTA Central
2) Should this tentative agreement be rejected by our membership, is the negotiating committee preparing our final proposal for arbitration and how soon will you allow us to review the proposal before presenting it?
3) The corporation is already showing a 39 million dollar profit prior to the 4th quarter which we all know is our most profitable quarter. Does the negotiating committee not believe that any arbitrator would not find in favour of APOC as we were the vanguard during these difficult times and continue to provide constant leadership and professionalism throughout all of our duties on a daily basis?
We will answer each of your concerns individually but, we must say that it is quite unfortunate that you were not able to attend.
To your first question, we would direct you to our Website and ask you to review Article 8.33 of the National constitution. It explains the breakdown of Representatives for the Negotiating Committee. The Negotiating Committee does not represent the interests of just one Branch but the Membership as a whole. It should also be noted that those elected as Representatives were voted on by the National Executive Committee which consists of the 4 National Officers and the 9 Divisional Vice Presidents.
On your second question, if the tentative agreement is not ratified and we have to proceed to Final Offer Selection Arbitration, it is the Negotiating Team who will determine what our offer will look like. At this time it is premature to prepare our final proposal prior to ratification. It does not go back in front of the Membership for review. We will make a determination based on what we feel will be the best chance to be successful in front of the arbitrator. As in the last round of negotiations, we did not go to the members prior to the arbitration.
On the third question, we cannot predict which way the arbitrator may go. Yes the Corporation has indicated that they have made a profit however, you must realize there is a large deficit in the Pension Plan and although they were granted a four year moratorium with regards to the special payments, at some time this will come to an end.
3. I have a question regarding the proposed changes to our work hours.
I have read the Q & A page on the website and I am confused about the changes that are being proposed. One answer states that: “Your scheduled hours of work will be increased to 8 ½ hours per day with a ½ hour unpaid lunch included.” And another answer states that: “All the changes are posted on the APOC Website under the document titled Communique to Members. These are the changes to the Collective Agreement being proposed. If other articles in the Collective Agreement are not identified, it means they remain status quo.” The way I understand this, that would mean there is no clause that guarantees that there will be a change to our working hours (to allow for this extra ½ hour) in the future. What guarantee do we have that the corporation will extend our work day by ½ an hour?
What is stopping the Corporation from changing our work day from 8 hours to 7.5?
Thank you for your question. Although the current wording in the new Collective Agreement under Article 17 will not change, there is an inclusion of a new “ Appendix Q” which will only take effect upon the Corporation successfully negotiating an unpaid lunch with the bargaining agent for the employees that our members supervise. Should this occur, the Appendix sets out the provisions in our collective agreement that will be amended. Finally, this would all take effect upon the Corporation successfully making the change in the other Collective Agreement.
4. Because there is no wage increase until 2015, will I forfeit my increase that would have come in July (assuming I received the appropriate commendable rating)?
Even in the years of the non-pensionable lump sums, there is no change to the incremental that is paid on July 1st of each year.
5. Why did we received the notice at noon the day of the session? You’re telling me you just found out that the event was to take place the day of?
The information was posted on the APOC Website on November 21, 2014. The Branch was to advise all its members that day to go to the website to read the communique titled Logistics Communique. In the document it listed all the sites the Negotiating Team was attending sessions at and it included the dates as well as the locations.
6. I have a question regarding the Partnership Statement being renamed to a Relationship Statement. Why is this part of our collective agreement at all?
The name is being changed as it better reflects the relationship we currently have with the Corporation. We felt it was important to keep it in the Collective Agreement not only because of the changes contained but also the commitment of the inclusion of the new committees being established. We are a professional organization and wish to be recognized as such.
7. This is more of a comment than a question.
I think that working an extra 30 min in lieu of an unpaid lunch and getting paid for 40 hours is a horrible idea. I would prefer to get paid 37.5 per hours like everyone else and leave after 8 hours like everyone else. Why should I have to be at the office longer than other people? I feel like I am losing more by working 8.5 hours than gaining.
If and when the Corporation is successful in implementing an unpaid lunch period from the Operational employees we supervise, our National Office will advise our local Branches including the respective D.V.P.’s to commence with consultations to establish the work schedules of all our members.
8. I reviewed the proposed agreement – concerning the following items
Seniority:
- Can you please tell me what the position of APOC vs Canada Post?
Meal Period:
- If my understanding of this clause is correct this would result in pay decrease of 6.25% as follows :
5 hrs bi-weekly / 80 hours biweekly. For example $30 * 5 hrs * 26 pay periods = $3,900 annual decline in earning power.
- I don’t understand why APOC would agree to a pay decrease of this magnitude which will also affect Pension pay. Please explain.
I expect to be working Dec 7th for Christmas parcel delivery so I will not be able to attend the meeting. I thank you in advance for providing the answers to the above questions.
Seniority – The position of the Association is to create a “C” list. The Association believes that we do not want to impact those members currently on the “A” or “B” list. If successful at arbitration it would mean that those on the “C” list would follow the same principle as those on the “A” list whereas the day they enter the Bargaining Unit whether from the street or from within the Corporation their seniority would start from day one in the Association. The Corporation is looking for status quo on the seniority. They do not wish to change the current practice pertaining to the “B” list.
Meal Period – There will be no reduction in salary. All members will continue to receive pay for 40 hours. The change will be that if or when they get the unpaid lunch from the employees that the majority of us supervise, we will then be scheduled for an 8 ½ hour day which will include the ½ hour unpaid lunch.