The following message was sent to all members of the Liquor Board Employees Division this morning:
As part of the Kaplan award on February 10, the arbitrator ruled that the employer was required to post 200 new Permanent Full-Time (PFT) Customer Service Representative (CSR) jobs. The union and employer have now reached agreement on the implementation of this portion of the award.
During the arbitration process, the union argued that the employer had failed on many levels to post and fill PFT CSR vacancies. The union felt that in order to start correcting the growing disparity between the numbers of PFT and casual CSRs, hundreds of new PFT CSR jobs were needed. The employer took the position that any new jobs should be considered to resolve the outstanding grievances filed by the union over PFT CSR jobs, while the union held that the two should be considered separately.
The arbitrator agreed with the union’s view, and he awarded 200 new PFT CSR jobs to be filled in two blocks of 100 posting, with the first posted and filled by August 1, 2017 and the second posted and filled by April 1, 2018. We see these 200 jobs as a step in the right direction to restoring the CSR PFT numbers, but will continue to pursue the existing grievances over past failures to post and fill PFT positions.
Over the last few months, the union and employer have been working on developing a mechanism for implementing the posting of these 200 jobs. We have agreed that each posting will be identified as “100 new PFT CSR postings” and will include the number of postings in each area. In addition, we have agreed that the Toronto and Ottawa areas will be posted by district.
The first 100 new PFT CSR jobs (to be filled by August 1) will be filled in the following fashion.
- The positions will be posted prior to any offers being made for the PVR postings.
- This will allow anyone who has posted for PVR to make an informed decision based on all available positions whether they will accept the PVR position as offered, or withdraw from the PVR posting process and apply instead through the posting for the 100 new jobs.
- The positions will still be filled by August 1. The only exception will be for reasons beyond the employer’s control, such as a member who is requesting a delay in the start of their position.
Following the filling of the August positions and prior to the posting of the second set of positions on January 1, 2018, the employer will post 30 PFT Product Consultant (PC) positions.
Where a PFT CSR gets a PC position, the CSR position which they have vacated will be posted as part of the second run of 100 PFT CSR jobs. Where a casual CSR gets one of the PC positions, this PC position shall be counted as one of the jobs to be posted in the second run of 100 PFT CSR jobs. By January 1, 2018, the employer shall post the second run of 100 PFT CSR positions, minus the number of PC positions filled by casual CSRs.
By posting 30 PC positions, this will allow PFT CSR’s to advance and earn higher wages, as well as offering advancement opportunities for casuals CSRs.
In the end, we can guarantee that 200 casual CSRs will be converted to PFT as a result of this process.
In solidarity,
Denise Davis,
Chair, Liquor Board Employees Division