It’s finally here. April 7 is Equal Pay Day in Canada

 April 7, 2021 is the day the average Canadian female worker’s earnings since Jan. 1, 2020 match their male co-worker’s earnings for the 2020 calendar year. You read that correctly. On average, it takes Canadian women an extra three months and seven days to earn what the average Canadian male made in a year doing similar work.

The numbers don’t lie, and they are appalling.

Today – in 2021 – women overall make 75¢ for every dollar made by men. That gap is even wider for women who fall into the marginalized groups.

According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation,  the following is how, on average, different women fare compared to white men born in Canada:

• Indigenous women make $0.65 for every dollar,
• women living with a disability earn $0.54,
• racialized women make $0.67, and
• women who are new to Canada make $0.71 compared to men who are also new to Canada.

Wage discrimination is real. 
Equal work deserves equal pay. 
It’s common sense.

The Government of Saskatchewan announced that effective March 18, 2021, workers are entitled to three consecutive hours leave during work hours  to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Workers do not lose any pay or other benefits while receiving their first COVID-19 vaccination.

Contact your GSU staff rep if you are experiencing difficulty receiving time off work to get your vaccination.

March 16, 2021 TMM

GSU has filed an executive grievance challenging Richardson Pioneer over the denial of sick leave benefits to employees age 65 or older.

The grievance was filed with company representatives on March 10 and a grievance meeting will be held on April 8 or 9.

“Paid sick leave has always been an important benefit and should be available to every employee regardless of age or other restrictive criteria,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner. “In my opinion, denial of sick leave on the basis of age is a violation of the “no discrimination” provisions of the collective agreement as well as human rights legislation.”

“GSU will present its position to Company management at the April grievance meeting and I’m hopeful that we can sort this out relatively quickly,” Wagner said. “If the matter isn’t resolved through the grievance procedure, arbitration is the next stage.”

Updates will be reported as the grievance moves forward.

March 9, 2021 TMM

An inquiry from a member of Local 14 (Richardson Pioneer) led GSU to dig into the issue of paid sick leave benefits for employees who are age 65 or older.

 “Our position is that anyone who continues working under a GSU collective agreement that provides for paid sick leave benefits should have access to the benefits regardless of age,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner. “In this instance there is some old language about sick leave payments not continuing past normal retirement age, but there isn’t a normal retirement age any longer and there hasn’t been one for years.”

GSU has raised this matter with the employer and will be pursuing grievance action if the matter cannot be resolved through discussion. GSU is also reviewing other employers’ policies to determine whether the same issue is present elsewhere.

Identifying problems as soon as they arise benefits everyone.  Contact GSU  when you think there is a problem to be fixed.

A copy of GSU’s submission is available here.

Should employers be exempt from giving employees at least 24 hours’ notice of change to their work shifts? GSU doesn’t think so.

 GSU has submitted a brief opposing exemption of grain handling and milling companies from the application of section 173.1 of Part III of the Canada Labour Code. 

Section 173.1 of the Code requires employers to give employees at least 24 hours’ notice of a change to their work shift. Since the improvement to federal labour standards came into effect in September 2019 the grain industry has been lobbying to be exempted from most of the employee-friendly improvements to the law.

“GSU, along with other unions in federal jurisdiction, has vigorously opposed any exemptions for employers,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner. “We’ve succeeded in backing the industry off on most of the exemptions they were seeking, but now it’s come down to section 173.1.” 

“Requiring employers to give at least 24 hours’ notice of a shift change is just common decency, “ Wagner said. “Why should workers do all the bending and twisting to make good on the lucrative contracts their employers make with their business partners, such as the railways? It seems that all of the giving is done by the workers and all of the taking is done by their employers.”

GSU’s brief was filed on Feb. 3 with officials of the the Labour Program of Employment and Social Development Canada which administers the Canada Labour Code. A copy of the brief is available here.

GSU’s biennial convention is where important policies, plans, and changes are discussed, debated and implemented. If you have a suggestion or see something you would like implemented or done differently within GSU, let us know. Contact your GSU staff rep and they can assist you in preparing a resolution to submit to convention.

You don’t need to attend convention in order to submit a resolution.

Send your resolutions to us at gsu@gsu.ca.

Members attending GSU’s annual general membership meetings were asked to vote on amendments to GSU’s constitution and whether to continue paying dues  into the GSU Defense Fund. Meetings have concluded, the results of the votes have been tabulated.

Majority approve continuing Defense Fund dues

In the closest results on a continuation of Defense Fund dues vote to date, a majority of 63.82 percent of GSU members attending annual meetings voted in favour of the motion to continue paying additional dues of $10 per employee/member per month into the GSU Defense Fund. Accordingly, the additional dues will continue for 2021 and the question of continuation will be voted on again at the autumn annual GSU meetings.

“This question has been voted on every year since 1996 and, while the margin has fluctuated from year to year, the ultimate outcome remains the same,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner. “After 25 years it may be time to ask whether the Defense Fund has reached a sufficient size, suggesting a new approach. I expect this will be a topic at GSU’s policy convention scheduled for March 18 to 20, 2021.”

Overwhelming majority approve GSU constitutional amendment

A 98.59 percent majority of GSU members attending annual meetings this autumn voted in favour of amending the union’s constitution to change the holding of biennial policy conventions to every two years in odd numbered years. The first GSU policy convention under the amended constitution is scheduled to be held from March 18 to 20, 2021.

Questions? Comments? Contact your GSU staff rep.

According to the Canada Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), the number of people being trapped in grain is on the rise in Canada. With that in mind, CASA developed their BeGrainSafe program to help farmers, their families, workers and first responders recognize and manage the safety risks of grain through prevention, education, rescue training and on-site workplace training.

The BeGrainSafe mobile training trailer was in Kiping, SK  on Nov. 20 and 21 to provide training to local firefighters. Trainees gained valuable experience about the restricted breathing and crushing pressure of grain entrapment when they were harnessed in and sunk chest-deep in grain. They also learned important lessons about how to safely rescue someone who had been sucked down into grain.

The message was clear: once you are trapped in grain, you’re helpless. And grain isn’t the only material you need to worry about. Danger lurks with any free moving matter you can stack up, including fertilizers, gravel, sand, and more. In fact, anything that can come through an auger or conveyor belt poses significant danger. Check out the video above and learn more about the  BeGrainSafe program here.

Shout out to the employers of GSU’s Local 1 (Viterra) and Local 14 (Richardson Pioneer) for being among the safety-sponsors of the Nov. 20 and 21 firefighter training in Kipling.

The point of using your health benefits isn’t just to use up the money – it’s to make sure that you are getting the medications, treatments, and help you need to feel and be your best.

Check your collective agreement for details on your account, and – as always – don’t hesitate to contact your GSU staff rep if you need help sorting things out. The services we provide to you are included in your union dues, and there is no additional charge for assisting you.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world around us has become challenging and unusual. People find themselves thrust into situations for which there is no playbook. And so it was for a group of GSU members who were exposed to possible virus infection at their workplace.

Uncertain as to the appropriate response to the situation that also included public health protocols, the union members contacted GSU staff representative Steve Torgerson who helped navigate the situation to the right place.

“It was definitely an interesting and informative week,” one of the members commented. “Was really glad to have Steve and the GSU there for us.”

If you have a workplace problem and need advice, contact your GSU staff rep.

Under GSU’s collective agreements with various employers, provisions exist for modest periods of paid leaves of absence to enable employees to attend to personal or family emergencies, support, or care situations without suffering a loss of pay. Depending on the circumstances, the leave may be provided by the employer as additional paid time or the absence might be charged to an employees accrued sick leave.

The type of paid leave applicable to a situation depends on the circumstances and the wording of the collective agreement. However, the common thread running through the various forms of paid leave is that the trigger is usually an event or set of circumstances requiring the employees presence and/or preventing their attendance at work.

Although the collective agreements and policies vary from employer to employer, generally speaking paid time away from work for rest and recuperation is covered by earned vacation or banked overtime. There is no other pool of general purpose paid days off work unless the collective agreement or an employer policy specifically allows for same.

When in doubt check your collective agreement and follow up with a GSU staff rep.