Government Operations Committee on Dec. 6th, 2018

[Carla Qualtrough]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you.

Mr. Blaikie, you have seven minutes, please.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you very much.

I was wondering whether there is any money set aside in the supplementary estimates to reimburse Canada Post workers who were on short-term disability during the rotating strike.

[Carla Qualtrough]

No, there is not.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

They're already making 70% of their salary because they have a work-related disability. Do you think it was fair that they weren't paid for five weeks?

[Carla Qualtrough]

It has to do with the fact that when the decision was made to do the rotating strike, the collective agreement was effectively terminated, and as a result the benefits under that agreement were terminated.

I don't think it was fair at all, but it—

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

That was a decision that the corporation made; they could have decided to carry on with those benefits. In fact, it's a decision you could have made.

[Carla Qualtrough]

In fact, they did carry on with some of the benefits. They continued with the disability benefits.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Yes, but there are a lot of people who weren't paid their short-term disability benefits. Do you think that's fair?

[Carla Qualtrough]

Short-term disability continued for individuals who were on short-term disability, as I understand it.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

That's not our understanding at all, from the many people who wrote to me who were on short-term disability.

[Carla Qualtrough]

I can get that clarified for you. My understanding—

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Then the question becomes—and we've brought this up in the House—why didn't you get on the phone to Canada Post management and get the answer then and reinstate the benefits for those people? We know that under the Canada Post Corporation Act the corporation exercises its powers and duties in such a way as to comply with such directives as the minister may give to it. Why did you not see a need to tell your corporation not to cut off disabled workers during a rotating strike?

To be clear, Canada Post workers weren't out every day; it was a rotating strike. In any given region there were maybe up to four days on which those Canada Post workers weren't working, and every other day they went in to work, delivered the mail, and got paid. But the people who were on short-term disability, who were already collecting only 70% of their salary, didn't get paid at all.

How are they going to make that money back, if government doesn't reimburse them for the money they lost during that rotating strike?

[Carla Qualtrough]

My understanding is that most benefits continued, that Canada Post put in place a process by which employees could make requests for special compensation, and none of those requests were denied.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Why do you think they should have to ask for special treatment, when those are benefits they're entitled to?

[Carla Qualtrough]

All they literally had to do was make the corporation aware of their loss and they would have been reimbursed—

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

The corporation decided to make a mean-spirited decision, as a tactic to try to break the strike, one that you endorsed by doing nothing.

[Carla Qualtrough]

I don't characterize it that way, sir.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Well, I do, and so do the many postal workers across the country. Are you not listening to them? Are you listening only to Canada Post management?

[Carla Qualtrough]

I think we've done a very good job over the past year of working hard to repair the relationship between management and the union, which had been significantly fractured in the decades before.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Well, I'll tell you what. When workers went back, after you legislated them back to work—

[Carla Qualtrough]

We have set Canada Post on board for a new vision that puts service to Canadians first.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Well, when Canada Post workers went back after being legislated back by your government, one of the first things they found out was that, despite the fact that there were only maybe several days during the five weeks on which the rotating strike was happening, Canada Post was telling them that it was going to dock them for the entire five weeks, from their accumulated personal leave and their vacation leave.

Now, you tell me, as the person responsible for Canada Post, how you think that's going to improve labour relations between Canada Post management and the workers.

[Carla Qualtrough]

I can tell you that the relationship is not where it needs to be to move forward with decisions at Canada Post—

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

So why are you letting your management poke them in the eye, when you say you want better relations?