In 2017, the Union filed a grievance on behalf of our Air Canada Rouge members when it became clear that our members were receiving vacation pay amounts that were below the minimums set out in the Canada Labour Code. This grievance was successfully mediated in June 2018, with the creation of an annual reconciliation process for vacation pay to ensure the applicable minimum percentages were met and paid accordingly to our members.
Vacation pay is calculated as a percentage of your gross wages earned during the vacation year. Where the vacation entitlement in the Code is two weeks, vacation pay must be at minimum 4% of earnings in the vacation year. Where the entitlement in the Code is 3 weeks, vacation pay must be at minimum 6% of earnings in the vacation year. Where the entitlement in the Code is 4 weeks, vacation pay must be at minimum 8% of earnings in the vacation year.
After the settlement of the Air Canada Rouge grievance, the Union filed grievance CHQ-18-56 to cover potential vacation pay violations at Air Canada Mainline. The grievance was again successfully mediated with an agreement for a similar annual reconciliation process. Mainline Payrolls and Crew Planning have spent a great deal of time creating a tool to process this annual reconciliation.
We are happy to announce that the reconciliation tool is finally complete, and payroll has begun to process any underpayments. The underpayments mainly affect junior employees, as they receive less vacation days so are more likely to not meet the Code minimums.
The reconciliation of the 2018-19 Vacation Year was processed for the March 17, 2021 pay cycle. For those active, any amount owed to you was included on your paycheque. For those inactive, the amount owed to you was placed into staging and will be paid to you once reconciliation of all outstanding vacation years are complete. The total value of the 2018-19 reconciliation was approximately $376,000.
Payroll has now moved onto the 2019-20 Vacation Year which will be completed for the April 16, 2021 pay cycle. They will then move onto the 2020-21 Vacation Year once the vacation year ends at the end of the month. This will then become an annual process completed at the end of each vacation year.
In solidarity,
