Bargaining Continues
After having to cancel bargaining dates in April and May, your negotiating team met with the employer on June 10 and 11 to continue bargaining.
We have now concluded all the non-monetary items, and were able to make some significant improvements (see details below). These changes included an union orientation for new employees on work time, domestic violence leave (10 days, including 5 paid days), citizenship ceremony leave (1/2 paid), a timeline for the employer to respond and rectify discrimination and harassment complaints, provisions to review and update job descriptions, and new Occupational Health and Safety and Workload Review articles.
We will move next to discussing monetary matters, but the employer has already stated that they are unwilling to consider improvements to wages, benefits, vacation, paid leaves or other monetary improvements.
Before resuming bargaining to discuss these and other monetary items, we will take the opportunity to consult with the members over the summer before returning to bargaining on September 15 and 16. Please stay tuned for more information!
Your negotiating team is dedicated to keeping you informed throughout the entire negotiations process. Please do not hesitate to contact a member of your committee or AUPE resource staff with any questions, comments or concerns you may have.
Please update your contact information so you don’t miss out on important union updates by visiting: aupe.org/updateinfo
Town of Ponoka Negotiating Team
Willie Jones, willie8075@yahoo.ca
Lori Matejka, matejkavl@gmail.com
Tamara Cameron, huzar@live.com
AUPE Resource Staff
Merryn Edwards Negotiator, m.edwards@aupe.org
Farris Sobhani Organizer, f.sobhani@aupe.org
Alexander Delorme Communications Officer, a.delorme@aupe.org
Non-monetary items agreed to June 10 and 11
Article 1: Added definition of a “lead hand;”
Article 6: Included a new 30 minutes of union orientation for new employees;
Article 9: Added a 24 hour notice for investigation and disciplinary meetings;
Article 11: A new 90 day timeline for the employer to respond and remedy discrimination and harassment complaints;
Article 14: We partially signed off on this article. We deleted “eat lunch on the job” language, replacing it with clear paid breaks language, but still want to see notice of schedule changes extended from 5 days to 14 days;
Article 20: Added language that “the employer will not normally request sick notes,” and if they do they will provide written reason. Sick note reimbursement amount increased from $20 to $50;
Article 22: Included critical illness leave;
Article 23: Added leave provision for full-time union position, added domestic violence leave including 5 days paid by the employer, added ½ paid citizenship ceremony leave, and unpaid military reservist leave;
Article 27: New maximum of 10% recovery for overpayment, or outstanding amount from final pay;
Article 37: Your Labour Management Committee will now meet at least every six (6) months;
Article 39: The previous New Positions article has been expanded and retitled Classifications. It now includes providing job descriptions upon request and protections for what step you are at if reclassified up or down.
NEW ARTICLE : Occupational Health and Safety – describes shared commitment to a safe workplace and formalizes the establishment of a joint committee
NEW ARTICLE Workload Review: Individual members or groups of members can appeal to the employer to address workload concerns
NEW LOU Job Description Review: The employer will update all job descriptions in consultation with employee. Members can appeal the outcome with support from the union.