Dear Mainline Members,

Air Canada has been determining the entitlement to statutory holidays of those on special assignment based on an incorrect application of the Collective Agreement. Air Canada is stating that members on special assignment are considered to be “off the payroll” and allegedly disentitled to statutory holidays, contrary to the Collective Agreement and the Canada Labour Code. Furthermore, Air Canada is improperly clawing back what they believe to be overpaid statutory holidays.

The Union has filed a policy grievance. Click HERE to view the grievance form.

If you have been affected by this matter, we ask that you send an email to i.jovic@accomponent.ca, and ensure to include the grievance number CHQ-24-32 in the subject line.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE

Dear Mainline Members,

Air Canada has still not implemented an automated process to ensure members are paid out their contractual night/special dinner entitlements. In addition, Air Canada has not addressed how members can be paid out their owed night/special dinner entitlements prior to implementing a manual process to do so as of the January 2024 block month. This allowance is specific to night dinners you would be receiving when operating pairings that comply with the all night flight pairing definition in B8.18 (departures between 0300-0530 and arrivals between 0300-0430).

The Union has filed a policy grievance. Click HERE to view the grievance form.

If you have been affected by this matter, we ask that you send an email to i.jovic@accomponent.ca, and ensure to include the grievance number CHQ-24-31 in the subject line.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE

Dear Mainline Members,

Air Canada has violated the Collective Agreement by applying an incorrect rate of pay to Mainline cabin crew personnel who have flown through from Rouge. Furthermore, Air Canada is failing to address the queries of affected members, as well as the queries made by the Union on their behalf. The Union claims that this is an abuse of management rights. Errors in pay need to be rectified immediately.

The Union has filed a policy grievance. Click HERE to view the grievance form.

If you have been affected by this matter, we ask that you send an email to i.jovic@accomponent.ca, and ensure to include the grievance number CHQ-24-30 in the subject line.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE

As many of you may be aware, there have been troubling concerns relating to how you are paid.  This has had a profound impact on many members who continue to struggle with the cost-of-living increases and skyrocketing inflation.  In particular, we are aware that inaccurate and inconsistent calculations being done by the company significantly impacts the take home pay of our colleagues.  We have had so many reported incidents that we are now left with no choice but to raise awareness of this unprecedented situation. We have seen and continue to see a loss of integrity in the payroll, meal expense, vacation calculation, minimum wage and general expense systems to name just a few.

To address these issues, we have set up an email address where you can send us information about your particular situation and/or can copy us on any pay correspondence with the Company. That email address is pay@accomponent.ca.

The year started off with multiple concerns raised from by members concerning the Vacation Clawback fiasco, where the company advised hundreds of members that they took too many vacation days in the 2022-2023 calendar year. Bulletins on this subject are attached below:

• January 25, 2024 – Reconciliation of 2022-2023 Vacation Year
• January 29, 2024 – Vacation Overpayment Process
• February 9, 2024 – Vacation Claw Black, Deferred Salary Plan & Special Dinner
• February 26, 2024 – Component Officers’ Update – February 2024
• March 20, 2024 – Payroll Issues

As noted above, we have received multiple reported issues regarding your pay. Some of the specific concerns we have been looking into are:

1. Members not being paid minimum wage for training credits.
2. Members being notified on pay statements to claim expenses for flights the system is aware expenses are to be paid on.
3. Our special assignment members vacation/stat days not being reconciled correctly.
4. Our Special assignment members not being credited stat day towards their vacation.
5. Violation of L26. The Company has failed to dedicate a resource to process pay claims in a timely fashion.
6. Several Rouge Flow Through Members wage rates were erroneously recalculated, stepped down and then corrected. This resulted in an unwarranted pay loss. This is especially egregious for our Rouge colleagues who have to endure a wage freeze when they flow over. The recoupment of their pay was accompanied by an explanation that simply did not include how and why the company determined them to be at the wrong pay scale.
7. Special Dinner allowance not being paid as per the CA unless it was claimed.

Your Union has had discussions on many of these items with the employer and raised these issues to many representatives within the management team. Regardless of our repeated concerns about the integrity of their systems, the consistent response we received was hollow assertions that  “Pay is important to us all”.  Despite the employer’s assurances that the concerns were remedied, we continued to see similar issues recur time and time again.  We simply have not had these pay matters addressed to our satisfaction, and more so to the satisfaction of our members.

The responsibility for paying their employees properly lies squarely on the shoulders of the employer however we are putting in numerous hours of unpaid work on a daily basis to address these ongoing pay issues of our members.  It is our belief that with an employer as sophisticated as Air Canada, which has won numerous awards, we should not have to fight for the basic minimum rights enshrined in the Canada Labour Code and entitlements in the collective agreement.  Your Union can not and will not sit idly by and give this employer unlimited time to rectify these issues. We do not feel that meaningful efforts have been made or that our concerns have been heard.  Essentially, we ask them to put themselves in the shoes of our members to understand how these actions have adversely and profoundly impaired their trust in this company to act fairly and take pay issues seriously.

We strongly advise you to review your pay, your pay rate, expenses, and any premiums you are entitled.  Please continue to CC us in your communications with the employer on ALL pay issues.  The extent of this is unknown, but we do know its far too large to allow the discussions to continue without our strong oversight and adherence to the Collective Agreement entitlements and Canada Labour Code rights.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE

Dear Mainline Members,

The Canada Labour Code (CLC) was recently amended to require federally regulated employers, including Air Canada, to provide employees with ten (10) days of paid sick leave per calendar year (pro-rated for partial years of service).

While the Collective Agreement already requires Air Canada to provide twelve (12) “paid” sick days per year, the Union has identified a problem regarding the use of sick days on regular days off (RDOs). In particular, if a member is unable to work due to sickness on an RDO, Air Canada deducts a day from the member’s paid sick day bank but does not provide any payment to them. As a result, members may lose several of their CLC sick days without being paid for them. The Union has filed a policy grievance alleging that this practice violates the new paid sick day requirements in the CLC.  Click HERE to view the grievance form.

To help prepare for the hearing of the grievance, the Union is seeking examples from members who have been unable to work due to sickness on an RDO and had a day deducted from their paid sick day bank without payment.

We are asking members to please let us know if this happened to you in 2022, 2023, and/or 2024. If so, please send an email to i.jovic@accomponent.ca ensuring the policy grievance number “CHQ-24-18” is in the subject line, with the following information:

1. The date(s) on which you took sick leave on scheduled RDOs in 2022, 2023, and/or 2024.
2. The number of days in your sick leave bank at the beginning of the relevant calendar year(s).
3. The number of sick days used in the relevant calendar year(s) before taking sick leave on an RDO.
4. If available, a copy of your block schedule and sick leave records for the relevant dates.
5. Your employee number and where you are based.

If you cannot answer all of these questions, please respond with as much information as you can – any information that you can provide will assist the Union in pursuing this grievance.

Should we determine that your evidence supports our policy grievance, we will send the information to your local union office for individual or group grievance filing to be attached to our policy grievance.

If you have any questions regarding this policy grievance and the information request, please email  i.jovic@accomponent.ca, and once again, please include the policy grievance number “CHQ-24-18” in the subject line.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE