Canadian Labour Reporter

MARCH 10, 2014 6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Banquet Crew: $17.63 Editor's notes: Counterfeit money: Employees are not respon- sible for dealing with counterfeit money. Surveillance: The company's surveillance systems can be used to collect proof to be used in disciplinary measures. Marriage: 1 paid day for the employee's wedding or the wedding of the employee's father, mother, brother, sister, child or the child of the employee's spouse. Moving: 1 day to be used before, after or on the day an employee moves. Maternity leave: 21 weeks. Parental leave: 2 years unpaid. Paternity leave: 5 weeks. Adoption leave: 5 weeks. n CONSTRUCTION Saint John Construction Association PROVINCE-WIDE, NEW BRUNSWICk (350 millwrights) and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) Local 2262. Renewal agreement: Effective Sept. 3, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2015. Signed on Sept. 3, 2013. Wage adjustments: Effective Jan. 4, 2014: 2.87% Effective Jan. 5, 2015: 2.75% Calculated by CLR. Shift premium: $4.50 per hour for foremen. Effective Jan. 5, 2015, the premium for foremen will be $5 per hour. $6 per hour for general foremen. Paid holidays: 10 days. Vacations with pay: Vacation pay will be paid as established by the New Brunswick Vacation Pay Act, except the rate of pay will be 11% of employees' gross earnings. Overtime: Double time. Meal allowance: Employees required to work more than 10 hours will receive a meal or $28 in lieu of a meal. Call-in pay: 4 hours at the applicable overtime rate. Uniforms/clothing: Safety helmets and other safety equip- ment including acid protective clothing, safety glasses, weld- ers' gloves, welding sleeves, hat liners and capes/bibs will be provided by the employer. The employer will provide rain suits and rubber boots when necessary. Sample rates of pay (current, after 2.87% increase): Millwrights: $39.05 Editor's notes: Travel allowances: $35 per day for employees travelling more than 80 km, $45 per day for employees travel- ling more than 120 km and $70 per day for employees travel- ling more than 160 km. Tools: Employees will have adequate time before noon and before quitting time to pick up and store tools. Damage or theft: Employees' tools damaged or stolen as a result of fire or theft while under the employer's lock and key will be replaced by the employer within 5 working days. Liability under this clause is limited to $3,000. Employees will not have tools with a value exceeding $3,000. Welding test: Employees will take welding tests on the employer's time. The cost of welding tests will be absorbed by the employer. Arbitration Awards Summaries of recent arbitration awards from federal and provincial arbitration boards. For summaries from past issues, visit www.labour-reporter.com for a searchable online archive. Your paid subscription includes unlimited access to the archive. Continued on page 8 Vacation scaled back for community health staffers in B.C. PART-TIME COMMUNITY health workers employed at home sup- port centres in Kelowna and Salmon Arm, B.C., filed a joint grievance represented by the British Columbia Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) respectively. Of concern was that the part-time home care staff were not receiving the vaca- tion entitlement they were owed. The employer's previously longstanding practice of grant- ing vacation based on length of service was changed in 2011 in Kelowna and 2013 in Salmon Arm. Instead, the centres pro- rated the vacation time. As a result, part-time employees ex- perienced a significant drop in the number of days received. One example: Donna Stubbe, a part-time health worker who had been employed at the Kelowna site since 1992, received four fewer vacation days than she expected. Stubbe worked, on average, 35.5 hours per week as part of a fixed schedule. Based on the previous system of granting vacation time on the basis of continuous service, she received 25 days off in 2006, 30 days in 2008 and expected to receive 30 days in 2011. But after her employer changed its policy in 2011, she re- ceived 26 days that year Vacation entitlement should be calculated based on past ser- vice, according to the language of the collective agreement, the unions argued. Based on the provisions, vacation time — not vacation pay — should be pro-rated. The employer argued the opposite, saying: "If all part-time and full-time (staff) are entitled to the same number of vaca- tion days but accrue their vacation pay based on straight-time hours worked, the result is that they end up with some amount of vacation time being unpaid." What is more is that, being a home support centre, vaca- tion scheduling directly impacts users of the service, whom are typically elderly, frail individuals, the employer said. Therefore, standards dropped and "certain clients were not experiencing the desired consistency of care." While neither the unions nor employer mentioned the par- ticulars of the vacation clause during negotiations at the bar- gaining table, arbitrator Joan Gordon said her focus was on the language and structure of the collective agreement. Both sides of the fence hold compelling arguments, she said, adding: "How, then, is one of these two linguistically

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