Monday, February 22, 2010

Arbitrator Rules in MGEU's Favour on HCSS Part-Time Vacation Entitlement

February 5, 2010
In December, an arbitration was held on the issue of vacation for part-time employees in Health Care Support Services. The MGEU is pleased to announce that the arbitrator’s decision, which was handed down today, upheld the MGEU’s position in its entirety.
 
The arbitrator ruled that the language proposed by the Union will become part of the collective agreement. The decision confirms that part-time employees’ actual vacation entitlement will be based on years of service and not pro-rated on an employee’s EFT.
 
The new language (which was designed to fit into the South Eastman collective agreement and will have to be modified to fit into some of the other MGEU agreements) will read as follows:
 
20:05 Delete in its entirety and replace with the following:
 
20:05 Annual Vacations
(a) Entitlement to Vacation Pay
Part-time employees shall earn and accrue entitlement to vacation pay on a pro-rata basis in accordance with the following formula:
 
Hours Paid at Regular Rate/ Full-time Hours = Pro-rating factor
 
[Example of Entitlement to Vacation Pay:
Employee A is a part-time employee, listed as .5EFT. In the previous year, A worked more than .5 of the full-time hours, and in fact worked 1410 hours. A's entitlement to vacation pay would be based on a pro-rating factor of:

1410/2015 = .7 pro-rating factor]
 
(b) Entitlement to Vacation Time
Actual entitlement to vacation time for part-time employees shall be based on years of service as provided for in Article 16:03.
 
[Example of Entitlement to Vacation Time: Employee A is in his/her 5th year of employment. Employee A is entitled to 20 working days per year of vacation time. For greater certainty, the term "working days" means days on which Employee A is regularly scheduled to work.]
 
(c) Entitlement to Receive Vacation Pay and Vacation Time
(i) Initial Selection of Vacation Time
Part-time employees shall have an initial right to indicate their preference to dates on the basis of the procedure set out at Article 16:05. During this initial procedure for vacation selection, part-time employees shall be allowed to indicate their preference up to a maximum on the basis of the pro the following formula:
 
Pro-rating factor x entitlement to vacation time = number of vacation days (working days)
 
[Example of Initial Selection: During the initial selection procedure set out at Article 16:05, Employee A shall have the right to indicate in writing his/her preference as to the following maximum number of vacation dates:
 
.7 x 20 = 14 working days]
 
(ii) Selecting the Balance of the Vacation Time
After the initial selection set out in sub-section (i) above has been completed, the selection of the balance of vacation time shall be at the option of the part-time employee but shall be governed by the last sentence of paragraph 1 of Article 16:05.
 
[Example of Selecting the Balance of Vacation Time:
Employee A would have the option to select the following number of working days in order to exhaust his/her vacation time entitlement:
 
.3 x 20 = 6 working days
 
Alternate Example: In the event that Employee A chose to select 12 working days of vacation time in the initial selection, Employee A would have the option to later select up to 8 working days in order to exhaust his/her vacation time entitlement.]
 
(iii) Operational Requirements
The provisions of Article 16:05 dealing with operational requirements apply equally to the selection procedures set out in sub-sections (i) and (ii) above.
 
(iv) Receipt of Vacation Pay
Unless a part-time employee requests to be paid in accordance with one of the four options set out below, and to the extent that he or she still has unused vacation pay, a parttime employee shall be paid his or her regular rate of pay for the number of hours he or she was scheduled to work on the working day taken as vacation time. An employee may choose to request to receive vacation pay in accordance with the one of the four options:
 
(a) partial pay divided equally over his/her entire vacation time entitlement; or
 
(b) full pay for vacation days up to such point as his or her vacation pay is exhausted; or
 
(c) a combination of (a) or (b) above; or
 
(d) partial or full vacation pay as set out above for a portion of the vacation time and the balance of vacation pay in a lump sum regardless of whether the part-time employee intends to take any unused vacation time at a future date in the vacation year.
 
20:06 Delete

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