Under clauses 51.05 (Mail Service Courier Relief Complement) and 52.04 (Relief Letter Carrier Complement), the Union has the right to a minimum criteria of one (1) in twelve (12) for vacation relief and/or one (1) in eighteen (18) for relief for other absences.

Additionally, these clauses dictate that requirements greater than the minimum criteria will be based on bar charts.  Should they show that additional relief assignment(s) would have been required more than sixty-five percent (65%) of the preceding twelve (12) month period, additional position(s) will be established.

Clauses 51.05 (b) (iv) and 52.04 (b) (iv) provide for a yearly review period, between September 15 and October 15 of each year.

This review will be much less tedious if the local has forced management to adhere to the language of clauses 51.05 (c) (iii) and 52.04 (b) (iii), which calls for a review of the previous months absences to be done on a monthly basis.

The union has produced and distributed rollups of the clause 14.29 reports (statement of hours worked by employees in Groups 1 and 2), which could be used to strengthen our arguments in our efforts to create additional bar chart relief positions in Group 2.  All staffing reports are posted on the “I” drive of the national and regional union’s computer system.

We must inform and involve the members.  We experienced a lot of force back overtime in recent years. If CPC refuses to create additional relief positions, we must let the members know. Also the new 15.08 (Appendix LL) process may create a need for additional relief.

Bar charts will only create jobs if we enforce the language of the collective agreement.