Question 9
You asked: We get 6 sick days per CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) calendar year which can't put into AMP says in CBA; why is rolling calendar being used for call ins for sick days? Seems like it's grievable.
Let’s get into it.
A most interesting question. For the benefit of other readers let me first clarify what you mean by “which can’t put into amp”.
This is Article 12.00 from our current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). It establishes that we will be provided 6 “sick” days and, in paragraph 3 it makes it understood that “appropriate use of these six days will not cause the employee to be introduced into the Company’s Attendance Program”.
“12.00 WAGE PROTECTION PLAN
The provisions of this Article shall only apply to regular employees who have completed three (3) months of employment, commencing from the date of hire.
Employees will be provided with six days per calendar year, to be applied to the first three days of any absence due to non-occupational injury or illness. These six days will be paid by the Employer at the employee’s regular straight time wage rate and will not require sick claim forms. On the fourth day of continued absence, employees must apply for Short Term Disability benefits in accordance with this Collective Agreement.
Although these six days will be included in an employee’s overall attendance record, it is understood that appropriate use of these six days will not cause that employee to be introduced into the Company’s Attendance Program.” (emphases added)
Your question is actually bringing to light two completely different issues! They are just barely related and I will deal with each separately.
6 “sick” days per calendar year
This is a negotiated clause and a version of it appears in every unionized collective agreement. The number of days may vary and how they can be used is often part of the negotiation but the necessity of having paid sick days is obvious. So obvious, in fact that the Government has now mandated sick days for ALL employees, unionized or not. A very progressive and overdue piece of legislation. It does not, however, affect CMBC because our 6 days is superior to the 5 in the legislation.
Many negotiated contracts take a somewhat different approach then CMBC/Unifor 111 does. It is noteworthy for future bargaining proposals that there are multiple “employee preferable” extensions that can (and should) be added to Article 12.
The most frequent “addition” to the language would include the ability to “carry over” or “save” unused sick days. The entire purpose of the CMBC AMP program is to try to reduce the use of sick days. They are a monetary negotiated benefit and the membership knows that it is a “use them or lose them” situation. It is remarkable that this “cost saving” possibility has not been bargained. Many would still use all 6 days (and more) but a surprising number would not and both the employee and the employer would benefit it the unused days were able to be carried over.
In my previous experience, the ability to carryover unused sick days usually carries a “cap”. So, for example, an employee could carryover sick days until they reached a maximum of 30 days (5 years).
The final “improvement” would be a payout of the sick bank when the employee leaves. If they leave CMBC through resignation/termination or retirement, they would be paid out the sick days in their bank. They are, after all, a monetary negotiated benefit. Analogous to negotiated vacation/RAV days.
I am also aware of some contracts that have allowed a “partial payout” of the sick bank. As an incentive to get the language into the agreement a concession may be given where, upon leaving, the employee would only be paid out “half” of their sick bank. The employer thereby gets a monetary incentive to include the language in the CBA.
I must encourage any reader to be optimistic about the scenario I described above being successfully bargained into the CBA. (You will, of course, have to submit a proposal or two!)
There has been a very significant (and progressive) change in the CBA in the last round of bargaining. Now an employee can take sick days one at a time. That can be 6 separate book offs in a calendar year. No requirement whatsoever for medical substantiation. No penalty for multiple book offs. That is a marked improvement.
This is an area where there is a remote connection between the two separate aspects of your question and I will elaborate during my discussion of the “Rolling calendar”.
Rolling calendar for “call ins”
For the benefit of newer employees or any employee who does not know how “call ins for attendance” works I will provide some necessary background.
When an employee first starts on day one, they have a pristine record - for both discipline and attendance. It does not take long for both of those categories to change. I will not discuss anything along the discipline journey in this blog, but I will certainly extensively canvass the “attendance management program” or AMP that CMBC (and multiple other companies) use.
The purpose of the AMP is to track employee attendance in detail using computer software and driven through payroll records.
It is important to note that the AMP, as I have stated in other blog posts, is NOT part of the CBA. It is a unilateral program (notice I did NOT use the word “policy”) designed to give management the maximum leverage in “controlling” an employee’s attendance through intimidation and fear!
In short, there are 3 levels to the AMP and during the 3rd level an employee is given “target attendance percentages” that he/she must meet OR….their status as a full-time employee can be subject to a “Service Review” and can (and has) lead to termination for “non-culpable absenteeism”.
The important part of understanding how “call ins” work is the use of the “rolling calendar”. The heart of the question initially asked.
I will first give a definitive answer to the concept that somewhere a “grievance” could come into play. But what would you grieve? The employer has every managerial right to call in an employee “for ANY reason they deem fit”! The ONLY requirement is that the employee will receive “one hour’s pay”. This is the relevant Article in the CBA.
6.04
Call-Ins
If employees are called in by the Employer outside their normal working hours, for an interview for any purpose other than completing an Accident Report, they shall be paid at straight-time rates for the time of such interview. A minimum payment of one hour shall apply. The Employer agrees to be flexible in the times that a call-in is scheduled and will, as far as it is practicable, accommodate Employees’ reasonable requests for appointment times to deal with legitimate employer/employee business. The Employer reserves the right to schedule appointments at its convenience where the circumstances of the business require. (emphases added)
For the benefit of newer employees (especially those who have never been in a unionized workplace before) it is very important understand that management has very far reaching “rights”. In essence, the CBA is a “restrictive document” in that, in the absence of contract language limiting an employer’s rights then the only limits imposed are those found in outside legislation such as the Employment Standards Act.
So, when it comes to call ins management has a very free hand. As many call ins as they want, whenever they want (with some considerations) regarding any subject matter they want. As long as the employee receives one hour’s pay!
I should also emphasize for newer employees that, regardless of the reason for the call in, you should always take a union rep/shop steward with you. It keeps the meeting more on a business level. Management would much prefer that you have a personal relationship with them. Be aware, however, that at the end of the day there is always the business end of the stick.
The intent behind the blog question posed today focusses on the “rolling calendar year”. To be clear, it is only a rolling calendar year for call ins related to absenteeism.
For the AMP program to be a useful tool, the employer must have credible metrics. Once an employee has triggered entry to the AMP then the rolling calendar begins. Regardless of what day of the year it is, that will be the first calendar day of the “AMP year”. It will be a different day for every employee. It is simply of matter of what day you were entered into the program.
It is a little bit misleading to think that the AMP tracks “sick time”. It does not. It tracks “attendance”, hence the name Attendance Management. Included in the data for an employee in the AMP program is the inclusion of time away from work due to a WorkSafe claim! (With 2 notable exceptions: [1] a claim based on assault on the employee, and [2] a claim based on a work related MVA.) All other WorkSafe lost time is calculated as an absence in the employee’s AMP tracking.
It is a necessity for the employer to apply the AMP fairly for all employees and that means there must be a realistic comparison between any two employees and that can ONLY be possible by comparing and analysing where each employee is in their “calendar year”. Their years will have different starting dates but, for example, an attendance comparison at 3 months would generate a VALID comparison regardless of when each employee’s year started.
In summary, although both sick days and AMP call ins deal with the subject of absenteeism, they do so with completely different purposes. On the surface it may seem as though they are related but in a labour relation sense they are not.
The final comment is to say that there is nothing to grieve.
Thank you for your question and I hope you have found the answer informative.