Updated: June 11, 2025
Now that the extension of our collective agreements has expired, we have started a nationwide overtime ban, and Canada Post has tabled its “best and final offers,” it is important to remind members of some of the major issues still left to be resolved at the bargaining table.
We have forced the Employer to back off many of its biggest rollbacks, like putting future hires on a Defined Contribution pension plan rather than a Defined Benefit pension plan and raising the premiums for post-retirement benefits for future retirees.
We have also come close to an agreement on many of the elements of a new work measurement system for the RSMC bargaining unit.
But there is still much work to be done.
In the tables below, we highlight some of the biggest demands that Canada Post still has on the table.
Canada Post wants a part-time workforce to do weekend delivery.
Under Canada Post’s proposal, weekend workers would be scheduled for 15 hours/week, mostly on the weekend, but they could also have shifts throughout the week. Canada Post could add more hours to these workers’ schedules in times of high workload.
Weekend work would be “unstructured,” so routes would not be built under the rules of the LCRMS.
Weekend parcels would not count towards the workload of weekday routes.
Canada Post’s proposal would all but eliminate overtime for full-time carriers, as part- timers with ‘flexible’ schedules would be offered more hours before full-timers were offered overtime.
Using “unstructured” work would give management far too much power to build routes that do not take into account fair workloads or health and safety.
If parcel volumes shift from weekdays to the weekends, this would mean losses for full-time Monday-Friday letter carrier jobs at the next restructure.
Part-time Flex (PTF) would be a new letter carrier function. PTF positions would be created on top of the weekend part-time positions.
PTFs would be scheduled for 20 hours/week, Monday-Friday, but they could be forced to work up to 30 hours/week. Once they’ve reached 30 hours, PTFs could volunteer to work up to 40 hours.
Canada Post wants to be able to staff PTF up to 15% of the full-time letter carriers in an installation.
PTFs would not own a route. They could be used to cover absences or assigned to any other letter carrier work that CPC wanted. Their work could either be structured according to the LCRMS or not, depending on their job for the day.
CPC wants to be able to offer work to PTFs under 17.04 before offering extra hours to existing part-timers or OT to full-timers.
PTFs’ hours of work could change on a “flexible” schedule. This could make it hard for workers to manage their work-life balance, depending on how the Employer chooses to schedule PTFs.
Management wants to have the power to assign PTF tasks without any Union oversight.
Adding PTFs would mean fewer hours for existing part-timers, and all but eliminate overtime for full-timers. It would also mean fewer full-time relief positions as PTFs could be used to cover almost 20% of absences instead of relief.
Canada Post wants to “soft launch” dynamic routing in 10 locations during the life of the collective agreement. The Corporation admits this will be a long-term project that will require huge investments.
To implement a dynamic routing model, Canada Post says it needs to make many changes to the collective agreement, including: the definition of an assignment (13.02); own-route overtime (15.08); automatic volume updates (Appendix QQ); and start times and departure times (48.01 and 48.02).
Ultimately, Canada Post wants to get rid of the LCRMS, the depot restructure process and Union involvement in building routes.
Under a dynamic routing model, computer software would be used to build delivery routes on a daily basis. Carriers would no longer own a specific route. Instead, they’d own a schedule and be assigned to a general geographic area.
The software would determine the order by which carriers would perform their tasks, and carriers would have no choice but to follow the instructions given to them through their PDTs.
For Canada Post, dynamic routing is all about ‘worker flexibility.’ It would give management the power to reassign work tasks to any carrier if there is a glitch in the software. It is about squeezing as much work out of carriers as possible in the full 8 hours every day of the year.
There will be no easy days. How will carriers be able to maintain this workload and pace over the long term?
Canada Post wants to get rid of the 5- minute wash up time before the meal period “to reduce unproductive time.”
This is a health and safety issue. Workers need time to wash up before their meal periods. It is important to remember that Canada Post mandated handwashing at workplaces during the COVID pandemic.
Workers are handling everything from live animals to medical materials. Our hands and clothes are filthy, and we need time to clean up before eating.
For letter carriers, getting rid of the 5-minute wash up cancels out CPC’s offer to add 3 seconds to the LCRMS manual for non-sequenced mail for door-to-door delivery.
CPC rejected our proposal to delete clause 39.04 and amend clause 39.05.
Our proposal would ensure part-time workers get offered extensions to work up to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week before CPC can call in temps or offer overtime to full-timers and part-timers.
The Union’s proposal would ensure that regular employees with pension and benefits would have equal opportunity for extra hours in Group 1. This would provide Canada Post with the straight time it “needs.”
Canada Post’s offer proposed a number of changes to job classifications and job descriptions in Groups 3 and 4. Canada Post says that these changes are meant to better align worker “skillsets” with new equipment and machinery in mail and parcel processing plants.
The changes include:
Canada Post wants to significantly increase the number of ELE-3s, while lowering the number of MAM-10s and MAM-11s. Canada Post projects that the number of MAM-10 and MAM-11 positions would be nearly cut in half. The cuts in MAM-10s and MAM-11s would be made up by increases in the number of ELE-3 positions.
Employees who voluntarily transfer will stay on their current wage scale for as long as they remain in the ELE-3 classification.
The ELE-3 job description would remain the same as it is now.
There would be a new 5-step wage chart for the ELE-3 classification, up from the 2-step wage chart in place now. The maximum rate for ELE-3 would be increased. Currently, the difference between the starting rate and the top rate is 2%. Under the new chart, it will be a 17% difference between the starting and top rate.
Employees on Year 2 of the ELE-3 wage chart would stay on that increment as of February 1, 2024, and would move up in each subsequent year.
Employees in the EIM10 classification would be responsible for the maintenance of programmable logic controllers (PLC). To qualify for the position, they would need to have completed a 2-year post-secondary program in electrical, automation or controls. CPC also insists that to qualify for an EIM10 position, a potential employee must have 2 years experience in the past 5 years in a similar role.
Canada Post wants to get rid of work ownership. This way, management can take workload from one route and give it to another. For Canada Post, this is about trying to limit ‘trapped time’ and overtime. (For CPC, ‘trapped time’ is pay for time not worked.)
Under this proposal, letter carriers and RSMCs would no longer be responsible for just their own routes. This would mean that if you’ve completed your route or duties in less than scheduled hours, management could assign you any additional work to fill your unused hours without paying for the additional work.
With the LCRMS and the new RSMC work measurement system, routes are built using agreed upon standards to ensure a fair distribution of work. Load levelling would give supervisors far too much power to reassign work at their whim, opening up more opportunities for supervisors to play favourites or bully and harass members on the workfloor.
Canada Post wants future employees to be eligible for the pension and benefits only after they have worked for 6 consecutive months as a regular employee.
Currently, CUPW-represented employees are eligible for the Defined Benefit pension and other health benefits as soon as they become regular employees. Future hires would have to wait longer than current employees to have access to benefits. Even if future hires worked many years as a temp or an OCRE, this time would not count towards their 6 months to be eligible for benefits.
CPC wants 4-year collective agreements with wage increases of 6%, 3%, 2% and 2%.
Because the COLA paid out almost 5% per activity value in 2023, CPC’s offer of a 6% bump for 2024 is barely a raise at all, despite the significant rise in the cost of living we have all experienced.
As part of our 2021 renewal agreement with Canada Post, the Employer committed to transitioning RSMCs to an hourly rate of pay system, once the parties had agreed on an “updated approach” to the RSMCs’ work measurement system.
The tables below give an overview of some of the most important proposals from Canada Post’s May 28 “best and final offer” that would come into force after we moved to this new system.
All current regular RSMCs will have job security under Article 23 from the date of the signing of the collective agreement.
Clause 23.03 will be amended to lower the radius for relocating surplus employees from 75 km to 60 km.
Clause 23.14 will be amended to extend the maximum time an employee can be on a recall list from 12 to 24 months.
Job security protections for current regular RSMCs will be improved, as they will no longer have to have 5 years of continuous service to qualify for Article 23.
However, employees who become regular employees after the date of signing will continue to have to have 5 years of continuous service to qualify.
Surplus employees may be reassigned to a comparable vacant route or a comparable permanent flex position in an installation within 60 km of the installation where the surplus is declared.
The maximum duration a surplus employee remains surplus before being laid off will continue to be 1 year.
CPC will build routes to maximize 40-hour routes “insofar as practicable.”
Also, in offices with at least 10 routes, there will be a formula to ensure that there will be certain number of routes guaranteed 40 hours. For example, for a 10-route office, there would be 6 routes guaranteed 40 hours and 4 routes with no guaranteed hours.
This is to ensure that the greatest number of RSMC jobs are like full-time jobs.
However, this could result in a reduction in the number of routes in an office, as routes will have to be consolidated to maximize the number of 40-hours routes.
Work schedules will include meal and rest periods, “as appropriate.”
Employees who work less than 5 consecutive hours will have a 10-minute paid rest period.
Employees who work between 5-5.99 consecutive hours will have a 30-minute paid rest period.
Employees who work between 6-6.99 consecutive hours will have a 10-minute paid rest period and a 30-minute paid meal period.
Employees who work between 7 and 8 consecutive hours will have two (2) 10-minute paid rest periods and a 30-minute paid meal period.
If, after the first restructure under the new work measurement system, a route holder obtains a route with less value than their previous route, the employee will keep the value of their old route for a period of up to 12 months.
RSMCs who obtain a route with less value than their previous route will have one full year of pay protection and income stability as long as they remain on the same route they obtain following the restructure.
This protection will apply to a maximum of 8 hours/day and 40 hours/week.
There will be a process similar to Article 50 in the Urban collective agreement.
This will allow Canada Post or RSMCs to request a route verification if route holders don’t complete their route within their scheduled hours on a regular basis. This process can be triggered when a route holder works 5% above their structured workload over a period of 4 consecutive weeks (except for December).
This process is meant to ensure that routes’ scheduled hours reflect their actual workloads. This is important for both work-life balance and health and safety.
After an annual assessment, if any route in an office is adjusted by at least 10% (up or down), there will be a bid on all the routes in that office.
This is to help ensure that the most senior employees in an office can maintain their scheduled hours and pay stability.
There will be a joint process to validate any time values that the parties have not agreed upon. The aim of this validation process is to ensure the time values accurately reflect the work we perform.
In case the parties continue to disagree on a time value after the validation process, either party can choose to send the issue to a technical arbitrator, who must make a final decision within 6 months of the issue being referred to the arbitrator.
According to CPC’s May 28 offer, there are still 12 interim time values that need to be validated.
Accurate time values are important for ensuring that routes are built with fair workloads and in a way that protects our health and safety.
The outcome of this validation process could have a significant impact on the time value of our routes. If the arbitrator favours Canada Post’s position, our time values will continue to decrease.