Evidence of meeting #2 for Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
So there might be more, based on when Christmas falls?
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
There could be, but it's 15.
The key point is the overall total labour cost compensation, and I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about that. You hear the number of $70 an hour.
Conservative
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
How many paid vacation weeks would a five-year employee get?
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
I apologize. That's 60 hours of paid vacation--a week and a half of paid vacation on top of the statutory holidays. The scheduled vacation is an additional 40 hours, so there would be 100 hours of vacation and scheduled vacation.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
After five years someone would get that. Would SPA days be another week on top of that?
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
That's what I just included. The 60 hours is the regular vacation and then 40 hours is the scheduled vacation.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Then there's something called a paid absence allowance. What is that?
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
That's like a personal day off--
National President, Canadian Auto Workers Union
It's a diversification, that's what it is. Workers have an opportunity to take one-day intervals on their total vacation amount; it's not over and above. They're allowed to take one-day intervals of paid absence allowance, which really comes out of their vacation bank.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
In other words, they don't have to take a week or two weeks, they can take whatever.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Okay. I want to clarify, that's after five years. Then where would someone be in terms of their paid vacation weeks after 20 years?
National President, Canadian Auto Workers Union
The maximum is five weeks, right?
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
I'll have to confirm this with our contract, and I'd be glad to get back to the clerk with the detailed schedule. After 20 years I believe you are entitled to five weeks, and that will consist of four weeks of regular vacation and one week of this scheduled vacation, or what you called SPA.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
That's one. Then the paid absence allowance isn't on top of that, it's actually within that amount? And that's on top of the paid holidays then, right?
National President, Canadian Auto Workers Union
On top of the statutory holidays.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
There's a lot of conversation around this Christmas bonus. It's not really a part of wages; it's an amount that's paid, negotiated? Can you describe what that is?
National President, Canadian Auto Workers Union
We've eliminated the Christmas bonus in this set of negotiations. In each year two kinds of processes were used, either a vacation bonus or a Christmas bonus. Each workplace deals with that in a local issue. In this set of negotiations we have eliminated the $1,700 annual vacation or Christmas bonuses provided to our members.
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
Those funds have been diverted to help pay for the retiree health costs.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Okay.
What percentage does the employee contribute to the pension plans in your pension structure?
Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
We have negotiated a non-contributory pension system over the years whereby the employer pays the full premium into the plan, and this is something that goes on during collective bargaining. We negotiate an overall labour cost and then different portions of it are allocated to different things.
First, I will point out that although there's no direct contribution from the workers, that doesn't mean it's free. It means we gave up other stuff to pay for it. Secondly, it has not affected the funded status of the plan at all, because the total funding into the plan is determined by provincial regulations. So the non-contributory status has no impact on the size of the unfunded deficit.
