Below is an update from a call that took place Friday afternoon.
Retail
- – They should get a shipment of nitrile gloves in 2 to 3 days. Concerning the liquid sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, they are discussing with the government to get on their priority procurement list. They have also set up a process where management or Employees can purchase these items if they find them and be reimbursed for them. We told them we did not want them to download the responsibility on the workers.
- – They are reducing hours at the beginning and the end of the shift. The first hour of operation will be reserved for seniors and persons with disabilities.
- – They will put tape on the floors and ask customers to stand behind the line to help with social distancing.
- – Starting with the highest volume sites, they will install Plexiglas barriers in retail. They will give priority to higher volumes sites and will involve LJOHS on discussions to prioritize sites if required. They are trying to procure these and trying to find sub-contractors to install them. We asked that they keep us informed of their progress.
- – As per the Bank of Canada’s demand, they will still be accepting cash.
Annual Leave
A number of workers had annual leave booked for the upcoming weeks and have asked to cancel these weeks of annual leave as they would not be able to go anywhere during their leave. The Corporation agrees to let people cancel these booked leaves but want employees to utilize this portion of cancelled leave before June 30th 2020. They understand that this crisis may very well last till June 2020 and would revisit the cut-off date if that happened. As some of these leaves where to begin next Monday and there is no board meetings before that, we agreed on a without prejudice basis that they could go ahead for next week and we would either confirm our agreement or opposition to this next week.
Special Leave for Childcare Issues
The current process is that members need to exhaust their personal days and then they are granted 5 days of special leave. If the required special leave goes over the described period, they will have a conversation with the employee and if they feel the member meets the criteria (I.E. No childcare available and the employee can demonstrate that they have tried to find an alternative solution) they will be granted special leave up and until April 10th 2020. They will revisit the need for supplementary leave after that.
The corporation will follow with a response pertaining to temporary workers on a long term absence backfill.
People over 70 and/or with immunodeficiency
We provided them yesterday with a document from the federal health agency that stated that people over 65 and/or with immunodeficiency were at higher risk than the rest of the population. We requested that they apply the same directive as the Quebec government and require that workers within that category self isolate. They stated today that they were following the federal health agency’s guidelines and that said guidelines where not to send this group of people home. They asked for clarification to the government on their position for these categories of workers. We took the position that whether the government recommends or require that they self-isolate, CPC should send them home as different levels of government may use different terms. They assured us that in the meantime, people over 70 and/or suffering from immunodeficiency could voice out their concerns to their supervisors and they would be granted paid leave. We also raised the fact that they may have workers in these categories that reside in Quebec and work in Ontario. They said these workers should be covered under the Quebec directive as they reside in that province.
Cleaning of facilities
We raised concerns about the cleaning being insufficient or late in some facilities. They told us they had increased the frequency of the cleaning in all facilities and that there was a process in place to clean if someone was showing symptoms or had travelled abroad and was in the facility. They asked us to raise any specific issues and specific location and they will ensure quick resolution. While they have acted promptly on issues raised in the last week this is not ideal but we will continue to raise these issues. We have contacted SEIU (Service Employee International Union) and asked if they could provide us information on proper cleaning protocols to permit us to evaluate CPC’s protocols.
Quarantine leave
We raised a situation where a worker was put in self isolation and the leave was confirmed by Canada Life, the worker was told by his supervisor to come back to work before the end of the 14 days or he would not be paid. The second situation we raised involves a worker who had been on international travel was tested and had negative results on the 4th day, returned to work prior to the 14 day period. This goes against the recommendation from the health agencies as the virus could develop in you body even after a negative test. CPC confirmed that workers should stay in self isolation for the full 14 days even if they got a negative result. They are going to look into this specific case, send the worker back in self isolation and ensure that local management and Canada Life have the proper information and give the proper directives.