Hello Sisters, Brothers and Friends,
The employer recently provided to the UTE National Office a revised notice for the hours of work in its Contact Centres, along with its Matrix, for consultation in keeping with our normal practice.
The Employer’s proposal includes the elimination of shift work in the Call Centres. More specifically, with respect to employees working a Tuesday-Saturday schedule, the plan is to transition to a Monday-Friday schedule as follows:
May 3rd – last Saturday shift
May 4th – 1st day of rest (Sunday)
May 5th – 2nd day of rest (Monday)
May 6th – employees scheduled to work May 6-9, 2025, followed by a Monday-Friday schedule for the period of May 12-16, 2025.
A new letter of offer with an effective date of May 6th will need to be issued as terms and conditions of employment will be changed.
As you may be aware, UTE has previously filed Policy Grievances and statutory freeze complaints challenging the Employer’s decision to impose shift work and these matters have yet to be heard by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations & Employment Board (FPSLREB). As this new proposal has addressed the substance of our recourse proceedings, the UTE advised the Employer that we still did not agree but we would not object to this proposal and would not file a Policy Grievance.
You will note that the Matrix calls for a start time of 8 EST (9:30 NFLD time for our members in St. John’s and 9 am in the rest of the Atlantic). The employer explained that the volume and frequency of calls do not justify an earlier start time and committed to providing us with their reports and statistics supporting their rationale. We advised that we expected that some of our affected members will be upset and we anticipated that some members may choose to grieve the imposition of a later start time.
We do not feel confident that a Policy Grievance is the most viable recourse for addressing the imposition of these later start times but strongly encourage affected members to request their preferred hours of work pursuant to the provisions of the collective agreement and if denied, to file individual grievances. The Labour Relations Officer assigned to your region will be available to assist you if necessary.
We understand that some members may be dissatisfied with the Employer’s decision, and again, we encourage members to file individual grievances should they wish to have an earlier start time. At the same time, we are pleased to report that this revised Matrix has addressed many of the irritants raised by our members in previous years and is more closely aligned to the position consistently raised by UTE over the years.
In Solidarity,
Marc Brière
Président national / National President
Syndicat des employé-e-s de l’Impôt / Union of Taxation Employees