Canadian Labour Reporter

S&T Industrial employees in Sault Ste. Marie join Steelworkers SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT. — Employees at S&T Indus- trial in Sault Ste. Marie have joined the United Steelworkers (USW). More than 90 per cent of em- ployees casting ballots voted to join the USW in a vote certified by the Ontario Ministry of La- bour. The workers will become members of the amalgamated USE Local 8748. The new bar- gaining unit covers more than 100 employees working pri- marily on maintenance con- tracts at Essar Steel Algoma operations. "We welcome these workers to our union and congratulate them on their democratic de- cision to join the USW to give them a real voice in their work- place," said USW's Ontario di- rector Marty Warren. "Our union will provide all the support and resources these new members need to defend their rights and to negotiate a fair collective agreement with their employer." According to the union, employees at S&T Industrial joined the union in order to address concerns over senior- ity rights, wages, and hours of work. A membership meeting was scheduled last week to begin the process of electing a ne- gotiating committee and to conduct a bargaining survey among members. Doctor chastises employer in sick note The issue of requiring doctor's notes for absences from work has risen its head again, thanks to a posting on Reddit. A user posted a letter — which the CBC says was alleg- edly written by a doctor in Al- berta — chastising the policy of requiring a sick note for an absence. "(First name) has had, by their own report, a cold today and sensibly stayed home from work rather than spreading this to his colleagues/customers. I have no test for the common cold and therefore believe him/ her, however you feel his time and mine should be wasted by making him sit in the walk-in clinic for hours and me spend- ing time writing a sick note that I could be spending on people who genuinely need my atten- tion. Please reconsider your policy on this – there are surely better ways of wasting your tax dol- lars." The issue of providing sick notes has proven contentious in recent years. Employers rely on them to help police absenc- es, and doctors rue them for the waste of time and the fact it forces people who are sick into public and into waiting rooms, where they could infect others. Last year, in an exclusive commentary for Canadian HR Reporter, Scott Wooder — president of the Ontario Medi- cal Association — called on employers to put a stop to the practice. He wrote: "Requiring sick notes for absent employees might seem like a good idea from an HR perspective, but consider it from my vantage point — I've been a family doc- tor for the past 28 years and I probably see an average of two patients per day who are only there for illness documentation. "That's two extra patients crowding my waiting room, possibly spreading the flu to pregnant women, cancer pa- tients and small children. "And for what? In 28 years, I've rarely denied anyone a sick note. If a patient says they've been vomiting or have a sore throat or otherwise feel terrible, of course I take them at their word." LABOUR BRIEFS 2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 FORMERLY CLV REPORTS Serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.labour-reporter.com Published weekly by omson Reuters Canada Ltd. 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Journalists and technical staff at France's na- tional media broadcaster have been on strike since March 19 — the longest radio news silence for a decade.

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