Explain This: After overtime and being asked about how to claim it on time sheets the next most popular question I get asked is about scheduling. All of the clauses and articles can be found in your Collective Agreement starting on page 50 and they all fall under Article 14. I will assume that every member understands what their basic hours of work are and whether or not they have a meal inclusive or exclusive of their standard workday. 14.2 Deals with your days off and that they must be consecutive and between 12:01am Monday and 11:59pm Sunday you must get two days off. Yes your days off can fall in separate weeks (Sunday, Monday) but only if that was the case the week prior. You are to work no more than 2 weekends in a row and prior consent must be gotten from you before the schedule is posted if you are to work 3. That means days off and weekends worked are not to be treated like Rogers cable negative billing (if you don’t complain it must be Ok). Now lets look at a situation that happens. If you are scheduled one weekend (Sat. & Sun.), the following one you are off and then scheduled to work the next. Something happens and you are called and asked to come in on the middle Saturday. One day is considered a weekend worked and since you are boxed by the two you have been scheduled for you have the right to say no because that would mean that you have to work 3 weekends in a row or they can give you the 3rd weekend off. The same would apply obviously if it was 2 worked and then one off and you got the call. The person calling can not use the “it’s unscheduled so you can’t say no”, YES YOU CAN. 14.4 Your schedule must be posted by 1pm on Monday two weeks prior. This mean on a company board in your immediate work area. Just so that we are perfectly clear the company e-mail is not a properly posted schedule and should be disregarded. My advice is do not open it. When you receive it, it should be deleted. I will add at this time the same thing for changing of your already posted schedule. E-mail does not count and should be disregarded. It is your responsibility to check the posted schedule on Monday but after that all responsibility falls upon the company to notify you personally of any changes. I have been asked a number of times about the phrase personally. This mean directly to you, either face to face or directly in your ear over the phone. Messages left on home answering machines do not count or messages left with partners, roommates or children are not considered personally. E-mail at work or home is not personally even if you open it, although you should. The company agreed to this a long time ago and it has worked fine for many years do not allow them to shirk their responsibility by accepting any short of personally. 14.4.3 Your days off cannot be changed once posted. Again no negative scheduling is to take place. 14.4.4 No employee shall be required to work more than 8 days in a row. This includes scheduled and unscheduled shifts. Again the company must receive prior consent for you to work.
14.5 Firstly the company must notify you by 1pm of the last day worked. If there is to be any changes and no penalties to take effect (see previous article). What does that mean, can they change your schedule shift? In short yes, if you are working Monday and your supervisor tells you before 1pm that your shift on any day that week is changing there would be no penalty (overtime) to the company. However if they were to tell you after 1pm about a change to Tuesday’s shift then you would be entitled to all hours originally scheduled and they extra hours would be a 2 times the basic rate (double overtime). Now on Friday the same would apply to Monday since Friday could be your last day worked before your next workday (Monday). 14.7 Let have quick talk about work on a scheduled day off. Although the company is suppose to try and give employees as many weekends off as possible we know that days off are all over the map. You must agree to work on a day off. You have the right to refuse and the company is obliged to try and find some one else. Even the most Jr. employee has the right to say no if the company can find someone else and they must make the effort to try, they cannot fall back on the argument that you are the most Jr. so you must do it. Take the time to ask whom have they called. My experience is that they do not start at the top and work down the seniority list, they go to the most Jr. employee first, but you still have the right to say no. You also have the right to refuse any scheduled overtime and that includes an extra hour or two scheduled at the end of your 8 hours or in the case of office staff at the end of 7 hours. Remember scheduled overtime is any overtime that you have been given notice before 1pm the day before. So at 10am on Tuesday your supervisor comes to you and asks that you work a couple of extra hours on Wednesday. You have the right to refuse. Many of these clauses have been in our contract for a good number of years. Over the years we have adjusted them and improved on their language. We only need to look at the phrase” employee’s prior consent” before the last contract it use to read “employee’s consent “ and because of misuse of the language we had to adjust it. Employee’s consent had been in the contract for years and no liberties were ever taken, but as management and their attitudes towards the employees changed so did the interpretation of the clause and we had to make it even clearer how the members were to be treated. These are just some of your rights contained within the Collective Agreement. You must exercise them if you fail to do so then eventually the company will come to negotiations trying to remove them. They would argue you don’t evoke any of your rights so why do you need them. If no one cares, why should they be hamstrung by them? Don’t allow your rights, by passive neglect to be taken away.