We all know how tough it has been for our front line workers both on the road and in the garage. We at ATU were able to dodge the bullet of the first round of layoffs from the City almost 2 months ago. Since then we have been working on prolonging service for as long as we can.
At 11:00 am today, the City issued some 500 layoff/redeployment notices to ATU members. Our Collective Agreement and the Letter of Understanding require that layoffs are based on seniority. There will be a provision for more senior people to voluntarily take the layoff, allowing more junior people to stay at work, but that will come in a couple of days.
In the meantime, If you got a notice, it will have come in your COE email account. Paper copies will be distributed following the emailed ones. There will be lots of information about how to go about applying for CERB. There’s also a copy of the Letter of Understanding (LOU). If you read the LOU, you’ll see that you’re entitled to top-up from CERB’s $2000/month to 75 % of your pre-layoff income. That top-up has become complicated by federal law at this point, but both the Unions and the City remain committed to getting it to you.
All members working in maintenance positions that are subject to layoff and some Operators will be offered redeployment. If you take the redeployment, your wage and working conditions and benefits will all follow you, regardless of what you’re doing (probably bus-cleaning). You’ll hear from your Supervisor about where your re-deployment worksite is.
IF YOU DECLINE A REDEPLOYMENT OFFER, you will forfeit the SUB Plan top-up and benefits.
For those who will actually see the layoff time, you will continue to the receive the top-up (as it is available based on the Fed getting out of our business, but for now, $1000/month) Plus your CERB of $2000?month and you will continue on benefits all for up to 16 weeks. Hopefully that will be enough time to ramp the service back up and things will be getting back to normal.
For Operators being redeployed or laid off the effective date will be May 16th. There will be a new signup beginning Sunday May 17. We’re not sure of the signup dates yet.
We want to acknowledge the outstanding work everyone has been doing during these unheard of times. You have all stepped up as front line workers to serve the citizens of Edmonton and it is being acknowledged by both the City and its citizens.
As always we will be providing more information as we get it.
Thank you!
Steve Bradshaw
ATU Local 569