Announcements

Vacation – it’s yours to use

Happy New Year 2081 Members!

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas break, including those three extra days between Boxing Day and News Year’s Day that were negotiated for you by your Union.

Another thing the Union negotiated for you over the years, is your annual vacation entitlement.

Without a Union, you would start with only 2 weeks vacation, but here at Camosun, our Collective Agreement starts us off with 3 weeks and then provides more days as we gain seniority, up to 6 weeks per year, plus bonus days after 10, 15 and 20 year anniversary years. All that is in addition to the Christmas week.

We also have provision for carrying over up to 10 vacation days into to the next calendar year.

The Union has been asked, “What happens if I have more than 10 days to carry over? Do I lose the extra days?”
The answer is NO! You cannot lose your vacation days.

Here’s why:

Clause 2.01 tells us that it is the College’s right and responsibility to “direct the working forces,” which includes scheduling breaks and vacations as per the Collective Agreement (C/A). The C/A further dictates (Clauses 20.02 and 20.03) that we are to be informed of our vacation entitlement each February, that vacation schedules shall be determined by mutual agreement and seniority, that we will be informed in October of any unused vacation, and that there is a process and a form to carry over any remaining vacation days.

That clearly puts the onus on the College to ensure our vacations are being scheduled and carry-over forms are submitted. And here’s an important point:
The C/A does not say vacation “may” be carried over…it says, “the remaining entitlement will be carried over to the following year.” And then it goes on to say, “With mutual agreement, such vacation entitlement may be converted to additional pay.”

But nowhere does it say Too Bad, So Sad, you lose the extra days.

The Union negotiated vacation because vacation is important to our health, our families, and yes, our ability to do our jobs efficiently and effectively.

But workload and resources being what they are, sometimes things come up, and our managers are busy over-worked people too, so sometimes things do fall through the cracks. If for any reason you have more than the allotted 10 days to carry over, do not violate your own Collective Agreement by abandoning those extra days. Think about it…losing a vacation day would be the same as working for free.

It is not your fault if you have more vacation left than the carry-over clause allows. It is the College’s responsibility to ensure an appropriate vacation schedule gets created and followed. It is also the College’s responsibility to set priorities, and authorize overtime (or not) and hire additional staff (or not).

If you believe you’ve lost out on any vacation, whether it’s because of too much carry-over time, or failing to submit the carry-over form, contact the Union office or a Union Steward.

They will ensure your vacation allotment is rectified, either in the form of carry-over or as a cash payout.

After all, it’s part of your compensation and is rightfully yours.

Attention All CUPE Members!
Please Read the attached information from CUPE BC:

Bill 21 – an attack on your collective bargaining rights

Bill 21 (The Ambulance Services Collective Agreement Act) was passed in the provincial legislature on November 7, 2009. This legislation imposes a contract on B.C.’s ambulance paramedics after a seven-month strike in which CUPE 873 members had continued to work at Essential Service levels. While much of the news media’s coverage of Bill 21 has focused on ambulance paramedics, the fact is that this regressive legislation has major implications for ALL CUPE members whose contracts expire in 2010 and will be returning to the bargaining table:

• The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that the right to free collective bargaining is a right enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The right to collective bargaining is also protected by a resolution of the International Labour Organization. Bill 21 denied CUPE 873 members their right to reach a collective agreement at the bargaining table. To add insult to injury, the contract was legislated while our members were voting on an offer from the government.

• Bill 21 sends us a signal that the provincial government has little respect for the collective bargaining process and will not hesitate to use the heavy hammer of legislation to resolve labour disputes. This is not the first time the provincial government has forced a contract on public employees, but collective protest can and does make a difference in the government’s ability to use the legislative hammer to end labour disputes.

• In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Bill 29 (The Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act). The court declared parts of the Bill unconstitutional for gutting health care workers’ collective agreements and placing limits on the union’s future ability to re-establish rights lost through the unilateral government action against its members. In this B.C. case, the Court contended that “long before the present statutory labour regimes were put in place, collective bargaining was recognized as a fundamental aspect of Canadian society.”

• Grassroots mobilization by the B.C. labour movement and public outrage against Bill 29 were important parts of the context in which the Supreme Court considered its decision. Our ability as a labour movement to mobilize our members will be critical in ensuring that the government thinks twice before taking further legislative action to conclude collective bargaining.

• In B.C., 200,000 public employees have collective agreements that expire in the course of the next year. Approximately 60,000 of them are CUPE members working in the K-12, post-secondary, health and community social services sectors. These collective agreements will be negotiated with the same government that chose to legislate, instead of bargain, a contract with CUPE 873. We need to send the government a strong message that CUPE will stand strong for the principle of freely negotiated collective agreements.

http://www.cupe.bc.ca/74

Retirement Planning Seminar

November 13-15, 2009 (Friday- Sunday)

9:00am – 4:00pm

Room/Campus TBA

Registration Deadline: October 30, 2009

Please Note: For more information or to register you can contact the Union office at 3665 or email cupe2081@camosun.bc.ca.

If you are a CUPE 2081 member who is thinking about retirement this is the course for you!

Once again we are offering our members heading to retirement an educational opportunity to learn more about preparing themselves for “life after Camosun”. Thanks to the College for agreeing to cover the costs of the leave on the Friday for those who register to attend.

To be eligible to register, you must be within your last 7 years of employment before retirement.

It is “First Come, First Serve” on registration and there are only 35 seats available. Once we have 35 registered, we will initiate a waitlist.

Before you register please talk to your supervisor for approval to attend.

There is a charge for spouses/partners to attend of $20.

PURPOSE
This seminar is designed to emphasize the importance of retirement planning, and to provide information and resources about issues that should be considered as retirement approaches and to motivate participants to do something about formulating a realistic retirement plan NOW. Individual group activity exercises will be used to help the participants establish long-term plans of action as well as a commitment to implement at least some planning ideas now.
Presentations from Canada Pension and BC Securities Commission will be presented whenever possible.

PLEASE BRING A CALCULATOR

SUBJECTS COVERED
• Orientation to Retirement Planning
• Pension Benefits and Retirement Income
• Financial Planning
• Good Health in Retirement
• Legal Affairs – Wills and Estate Planning
• Leisure Time
• Living Arrangements
• Relationships and Organizing Personal Resources

As you know we resolved the CUPE Staff Development Professional Development Fund Per Diem Grievance and more recently our CUPE ACCORD Fund Per Diem Grievance. Our members are working diligently in Human Resources/Payroll and Accounting to process the reimbursements for those members who did not receive Union Rates from their claims.

We ask that you try to be patient as our members also have their regular workloads to contend with while taking on this additional load. If you have questions, please direct them to our Union office at 3665 or cupe2081@camosun.bc.ca and we'll do our best to get the answers you seek.

Background:

On May 24, 2007 your union filed a grievance with regards to the College making a unilateral decision to change the CUPE ACCORD Fund Per Diems from "Union Rates" to "College Rates".

This was done without consultation or agreement with your Union.

The practice and agreement prior to May 2007 was that members who applied for Courses and/or Conferences from the CUPE ACCORD Funds would be reimbursed at Union Rates.

The employer felt that the compensation rates that our local representatives and the membership had agreed to with the previous administrations, was not equivalent to other employer groups at the college.

We as your union representatives argued at the Labour/Management table, that the agreement had been in place to pay Union Rates as per our CUPE Local 2081 Bylaws. We also argued that this fund had been negotiated and established in good faith by both parties in lieu of a wage increase many years ago. Payment of Per Diems had never been a concern since the establishment of the Fund and it was understood it was part of our members overall compensation package. It also was a part of our Collective Agreement.

Result:

Arbitrator Colin Taylor has reviewed the written submissions by both parties (the union's written submission was prepared and submitted by Chief Steward Louise Oetting and our National Representative Ian McLean) and has found in favour of the union in this instance.

His direction to the employer is quite clear:
" In conclusion, then, I find that as a matter of interpretation of Article 30.02(b), the College does not have the power to change the "guidelines for administration of the staff development programme"...

Thus I allow the grievance and direct the College to resume paying the "Union Rates" to CUPE members as specified on the March 3, 2000 form, as well as to make whole those members who have been reimbursed at thee lower "College rates" since May 2007."

Therefore, if you accessed the CUPE ACCORD Account from May 2007 onwards and you were not paid your full Per Diems and mileage at "Union Rates" as set forth in Article 14 of the CUPE 2081 Bylaws, you are entitled to receive compensation.

Any member who continues to submit under the ACCORD Fund, will receive Union Rates for all Per Diems and mileage as outlined on the Application form and as per our Collective Agreement and Bylaws.

Union Rates as per Article 14 of the CUPE Bylaws are as follows:

Breakfast = $10
Lunch = $20
Dinner = $25
Incidental = $10
Therefore you maximum Per Diem for a day is $65.
Please note: the Incidental amount is claimed regardless whether or not you are
staying over night.
Mileage (based on CUPE BC rates) = $.52 per km

In solidarity,

Louise Oetting
Chief Steward/Office Coordinator - CUPE 2081

At 6:55pm June 23rd, 2009 your Union and the Employer settled the Contracting Out Grievances through the mediation process using Arbitrator Rod Germaine.

The settlement provides a number of resolves:
- a clearer definition of what work our members perform,
- job security,
- a better consultative process
-a process to identify and discuss work prior to contracting out and if the union disagrees, we have an expedited process to get a decision from one of three arbitrators on whether or not it's our work
- the hiring of a general labourer for 3 months in 2010 to do painting as a project and to review that project on conclusion to discuss it's effectiveness as we had attempted through discussions previously with the employer
-a lump sum payment on a without prejudice basis on the unions claim for lost dues dues to contracting out

With that your Union representatives will be reviewing all PO's currently in play for this year and identify work which we believe could have been done in house. We'll be reviewing them with the Employer to work towards resolving those concerns for future.
For 2010 we'll be reviewing the Purchase orders and other service agreements so we can avoid any further contracting out concerns between parties. This should alleviate the need for us to pursue grievances as long as we can agree the work is not our bargaining unit work.
In sol,
Louise Oetting
Chief Steward

The Agenda is located under the tab for "Meetings & Agenda" on the right hand side of your screen.
are located in the link on the left under "Meetings & Agenda"

At our March 2009 General Membership meeting, members presented a notice of motion to change the Staff Development Funds. Your $75 allotment out of your $2000 annual amount is now $300 per year as of April 2009.

We informed the employer at out May 2009 Labour Management Committee meeting of the members wishes and the change which needs to be reflected.

Currently the forms online are not reflective of the changes and we hope to have that out asap.

So please take note: you as a CUPE employee are entitled to $2000 per year in CUPE Staff Development Funds and of that $2000 you can utilize $300 for recreation activities.

Please note, Some submissions including recreational activities submitted to the CUPE Staff Development Fund for reimbursement may be considered a taxable benefit.

In solidarity,
Louise Oetting
Chief Steward/Office Coordinator - CUPE 2081

CUPE 2081 Wins Arbitration Settlement on CUPE Staff Development Per Diems

Background:

On May 24, 2007 your union filed a grievance with regards to the college making a unilateral decision to change the CUPE Staff Development Fund Per Diems from “Union Rates” to “College Rates”.

This was done without consultation or the agreement of your union.

As indicated on our CUPE Staff Development Forms the practice and agreement prior to May 2007 was that members who applied for Courses and/or Conferences from the CUPE Staff Development funds would be reimbursed at Union Rates.

The employer felt that the compensation that our members had agreed to with the previous administrations, was not equivalent to other employer groups at the college.

We as your union argued at the Labour/Management table, that agreement had been in place to pay Union rates as per our Bylaws. We also argued that this fund had been negotiated and established in good faith by both parties in lieu of a wage increase many years ago. Payment of Per Diems had never been a concern since the establishment of the Fund and it was understood it was part of our members overall compensation package and a part of the Collective Agreement.

Result:

Arbitrator Colin Taylor has reviewed the written submissions by both parties (the union’s written submission was prepared and submitted by Chief Steward Louise Oetting and our National Representative Ian McLean) and has found in favour of the union in this instance.

His direction to the employer is quite clear:
“In conclusion, then, I find that as a matter of interpretation of Article 30.02(b), the College does not have the power to change the “guidelines for administration of the staff development programme”…..
Thus I allow the grievance and direct the College to resume paying “Union rates” to CUPE members as specified on the March 3, 2000 form, as well as to make whole those members who have been reimbursed at the lower “College rates” since May 2007.”

Therefore, if you accessed the CUPE PD Account from May 2007 onwards and you were not paid your full Per Diems at “Union Rates” as per Article 14 of the CUPE 2081 Bylaws, you are entitled to receive compensation.

Any member who continues to submit under the CUPE PD Fund will receive Union Rates for all their Per Diems as outlined on the Application form and as per our Collective Agreement and Bylaws.

This means if you were paid College rates, retroactively to May 2007, you will have your Staff Development Applications adjusted for you to be reimbursed at Union Rates.

The Union Rates as Per Article 14 of the CUPE 2081 Bylaws are as follows:
Breakfast = $10
Lunch = $20
Dinner = $25
Incidentals = $10
Mileage (based on the CUPE BC rates) = $.52 per km.

Please keep in mind we are still awaiting a response to our grievance on the ACCORD Fund Per Diems. Hopefully we’ll have information regarding that fund for you soon.

Stay Tuned for more Information:

Labour/Management representatives will be meeting with the employer June 17th, 2009 and we will be working out the process for your reimbursements at that time and will update you on the progress and process as it develops.

In solidarity,
Louise Oetting
Chief Steward/Office Coordinator – CUPE 2081

Well we'll be starting our 5th Spot the Pin Contest in September this year!!

Wear your Pin!!! You could be a Winner!!!

If you don't have a Local Union Pin, you won't be able to participate. There are lots of great prizes!!!

To get your pin you need to attend a General Membership Meeting (check the Meetings & Agenda notices for your next meeting location and time).

Wear your Pin!! You could be a Winner!!