Canadian Labour Reporter

May 18, 2020

Canadian Labour Reporter is the trusted source of information for labour relations professionals. Published weekly, it features news, details on collective agreements and arbitration summaries to help you stay on top of the changing landscape.

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Telepartners workers sign contract TORONTO — United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Local 1006A members working at Telepartners Call Centre in Toronto signed a new union con- tract on May 8 that provides wage increases and benefit gains. Under their new collective agreement — which runs until August 2022 — workers will see benefits being provided to part- time workers, an increase to sick- leave time, three weeks' vacation after three years of service and wage increases of $1 per hour in each year of the contract, says UFCW. The 35 employees at Telepart- ners work as customer-service agents, shift leaders and bilingual customer service agents. UFCW Local 1006A repre- sents 36,000 employees across Ontario, including the grocery re- tail, food processing, hospitality, laundry, warehousing, transpor- tation, and eye-care industries. PPEs rules decided by Ontario arbitrator TORONTO — Recognizing that the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) had raised legitimate concerns about access to proper protective equipment (PPE) and infection-control practices at dozens of long-term care homes in Ontario, arbitrator John Stout released a grievance arbitration decision on May 5 that provided direction on these practices. ONA was filing grievances at a majority of long-term care homes where it represents nurses, on a range of issues including the avail- ability and access to proper pro- tective equipment (PPE), train- ing, enforcing physical distancing rules, isolating residents and reg- ulating co-horting measures of COVID-19-positive and negative residents. It also addressed short- staffing issues and staff working while ill, says the union. "Long-term care nurses and health-care professionals have been trying desperately to stem the spread of COVID-19, and this decision obliges employers to work co-operatively with ONA to achieve that goal," says Vicki McKenna, ONA president. In both the SARS outbreak and current COVID-19 pandemic, the province was "unprepared," says Stout. The "precautionary principle must be used" when the science is unclear, ruled Stout. About 1,594 health-care workers in long-term care have become infected with COVID-19, and three personal support workers in this sector have died to date, says the arbitrator. Long-term care homes must now follow the chief medical officer of health's directives, the ONA collective agreement, and Occupational Health and Safety laws regarding nurses' access to PPE, communication, testing, cleaning, staffing, co- horting of residents and self- isolation, according to the arbi- trator's decision. Evergreen Forestry workers reach agreement HAY RIVER, N.W.T. — A tenta- tive agreement was reached for employees of Evergreen Forestry Limited Partnership in Deh Gáh Got'ie First Nation (Fort Provi- dence) and K'atl'odeeche First Nation (Hay River Reserve) in the Northwest Territories. The agreement, if ratified by the membership, will by January 2023, bring wages of crew lead- ers, crew members and tower- lookout persons close to parity with firefighters employed by the government of the Northwest Territories who do comparable work, says the Union of Northern Workers (UNW). "We are very pleased that we were able to work with Evergreen Forestry to reach this deal, which will result in the firefighters at Ev- ergreen getting the pay they de- serve for the difficult, dangerous and critical work they do," said Todd Parsons, UNW president. Pay increases in the new agree- ment include two sets of retro- active pay packages: 3.5 per cent retroactive to Jan. 1, 2019 and Jan. 1, 2020. Ratification votes will be held in both communities as soon as possible. If ratified by the mem- bership, the new collective agree- ment will have an expiry of Dec. 31, 2023. FORMERLY CLV REPORTS Serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.hrreporter.com/labour Subscription rate: $599 per year Customer Service subscriptions@kmimedia.ca President Tim Duce Editor/Supervisor Sarah Dobson | (416) 644-8740 Ext 330 sarah.dobson@keymedia.com News Editor John Dujay | (416) 644-8740 Ext 321 john.dujay@keymedia.com Employment Law Editor Jeffrey R. Smith | (416) 644 8740 Ext 319 jeffrey.r.smith@keymedia.com Business Development Manager Fred Crossley | (416) 644-8740 ext. 236 fred.crossley@keymedia.com Subscriptions and Circulation Manager Keith Fulford | (416) 644-8740 Ext 329 keith.fulford@keymedia.com ©2020 HAB Press Limited All rights reserved. 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