Pay Equity Update

We have now completed the Focus Groups in our Pay Equity Study. In total we held 47 Focus Groups from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We thank all those members who participated for your valuable contributions.

We were able to get a better understanding of the day to day work of the male comparators; Letter Carriers, Letter Carrier Assistants, Relief Letter Carriers, Mail Service Couriers, Mail Service Courier Heavy Vehicle and Mail Despatchers as compared to the work of the female comparators; Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers and the Permanent Relief Employees.

Job Evaluation Tool

The parties are now working on developing a Job Evaluation Tool which will be used to evaluate the work based on the four criteria in the Pay Equity Legislation; Skill, Effort, Responsibility and Working Conditions.

The four criteria will be further broken down into sub-factors, with each sub-factor having different point values. Once all the jobs are evaluated, the consultants will be able to determine if RSMC work is of equal value to that of the male comparator.

Total Compensation & Arbitration

On Friday, July 14^th we went to mediation/arbitration on the issue of disclosure of information regarding Total Compensation.

As we have stated in previous bulletins, Pay Equity Legislation states that if the work of a female dominated group is found to be of equal value of a male dominated group within the same company, the Total Compensation must be of equal value.

Total Compensation is more than your take home pay. It also includes items such as pension, benefits and paid leaves.

Because it is all encompassing, the parties need to agree on a methodology for calculating the Total Compensation for the RSMCs and for the male comparators.

In March of 2017, the Union presented our proposal on the methodology in calculating Total Compensation. Canada Post provided their proposal in June. To fully understand their proposal we requested further information. Canada Post stated that some information is not available and outright denied some of our requests. Based on their response, we have gone in front of Arbitrator Flynn to mediate and if necessary arbitrate the issue.

In mediation, with the assistance of Mediator/Arbitrator Flynn, Canada Post has agreed to provide the requested information.

We have agreed to a number of arbitration dates to arbitrate the issue of Total Compensation. Those dates are; August 28^th, September 7^th and September 29^th.

We will keep you posted on further developments as they occur.

In Solidarity,