The national grievance committee at CBC has met three times since the new collective agreement was negotiated at the beginning of the year and resolved almost all of the outstanding disputes. This has been the most successful period in recent history, with the union and management sharing information and working between meetings to reach solutions to problems.
The two sides continue to work on issues related to the hiring of temporary employees. A joint temporary committee has been meeting regularly for nearly two years to review whether temporary employees are being hired appropriately in every location in the country. Dozens and dozens of employees have already achieved permanent status through this process.
In addition, we continue to try to hammer out an agreement on how special leave is granted. The Guild filed a grievance in the fall of 2007 to dispute the denial of special leave when members have to deal with family or personal situations. We are seeking a fair and consistent approach from management to the granting of special leave so that employees are not forced to take vacation time to cope with family or personal matters ? such as surgery on a family member or a court date in a divorce.
The Guild also filed a new grievance because the Corporation has been denying employees annual leave during ratings periods without proving that the people in question are irreplaceable. The Guild seeks a reasonable and situation-specific approach to vacation requests during ratings periods.
Looking ahead, we will be watching for impacts from the current round of layoffs on the workloads of those who remain in their jobs. We urge all members to pay attention to increases in workload, speed-up of work and whether someone from outside our bargaining unit is doing work that used to be performed by our CMG colleagues. If you have any concerns about work in your area, please get in touch with a member of your Guild location executive or contact the national office (info@cmg.ca) at 416-591-5333 or 1-800-465-4149.
Your national grievance committee:
Elaine Janes, Toronto (chair)
Bob Sharpe, St. John’s
John O’Connor, Regina
Christian Massey, Vancouver
Jonathan Spence, Toronto
Annick Forest, Vancouver
Bruce May, CMG staff representative
Jean Broughton, CMG union services co-ordinator