Bulletin
ICBC – 2018 Vacation Scheduling Process
September 20, 2017
To: MoveUP members at ICBC in the following jobs;
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Claims Adjusters (excluding Out-of-Province Claims and Commercial Claims)
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Injury Adjusters (excluding those in Out-of-Province Claims)
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Injury Adjusters at CCIC
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Supervisors Telephone Claims, Call Centre Coordinators, Customer Service Adjusters, Claims Contact Representatives at CCC
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Broker Enquiry Representatives, AP and Driver Services Representatives at BEU
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Customer Contact Representatives I at DTVI
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Customer Contact Representatives II & Customer Contact Representatives III at ICS
2018 Vacation Scheduling Process
It’s that time again, time to start bidding for next year’s vacation. We are now in the third iteration of an LOU around vacation scheduling. Each year, we have taken what we have learned, both the good and the bad, and have tried to address the members’ concerns.
Trying to come up with a system that meets the needs of 1200 employees has not been easy but I am hopeful we are getting closer. The employer has assigned the Workforce Department at ICBC to be responsible for work and vacation scheduling for the following groups of employees:
1. Claims Adjusters (excluding Out-of-Province Claims and Commercial Claims)
2. Injury Adjusters (excluding those in Out-of-Province Claims)
3. Injury Adjusters at CCIC
4. Supervisors Telephone Claims, Call Centre Coordinators, Customer Service Adjusters,
Claims Contact Representatives at CCC
5. Broker Enquiry Representatives, AP and Driver Services Representatives at BEU
6. Customer Contact Representatives I at DTVI
7. Customer Contact Representatives II & Customer Contact Representatives III at ICS
8. Customer Contact Representatives II DL at DLCCCV.
This bulletin affects all of the above groups EXCEPT #8 Customer Contact Representatives II DL at DLCCCV who will be part of a pilot program on a completely different system.
Attached to this bulletin is an LOU regarding how you will bid for your 2018 vacation. For most of you this will not be an entirely new procedure as we amended the process in the last two years as well. However, this year’s version of the LOU has been improved based on your feedback.
The Background:
The language in our collective agreement at Article 15 is no longer adequate for the way ICBC currently schedules and distributes vacation. Article 15 allows for only one deadline for vacation submissions. By the straight reading of the language, all employees have to submit their vacation selections to the manager by November 20th. The manager then had until December 10 to publish the vacation schedule. The flaw in that system, especially with large work groups, is that members could take until the deadline to submit their selections which stalled the process and didn’t allow junior members an opportunity to select their vacation. The old system of selecting vacation on a sheet of paper just doesn’t work anymore for the way ICBC is doing business and so we have been working to find a viable solution for affected members.
To facilitate this process the parties replaced the single deadline requirement with a four deadline process. Members reported that this kept the process moving along; they could see the results after each bid, and this allowed them to make informed choices for their next vacation selection. So that part seems to be a success.
Consistently, the biggest complaint from members has been that they can’t see what senior people have bid and therefore they feel they are ‘bidding blind.’ At every single meeting with the employer we have told them that we have to find a way to resolve this fundamental problem with the system. We have not wavered in taking that message to the employer on your behalf.
This year, we proposed a radically different system to ICBC, one where each person has an assigned time in each round to bid their vacation. The employer has agreed to pilot that system with the employees at Customer Contact Representatives II DL at DLCCCV (approximately 66 members) and we will see if it would work for larger groups of employees in the future.
The Highlights:
I encourage everyone to read the document LOU but here are some of the key pieces of the agreement we reached with ICBC:
1. Full Week Bids in Round 1 & 2:
In the first two rounds of vacation bidding employees will be required to bid in units of a full calendar week. This restriction will eliminate the chance of partial weeks being left unassigned, especially during the high demand times of the year. It was clear in the 2017 vacation bid, that some members did not get a favourable vacation award because of random days being taken, leaving part of the week open and part not. We hope this will fix this issue.
Furthermore, at the call centres, this will also alleviate problems that can occur when work schedules get changed midway through the year. If you have the week secured, and your hours of work changes, you will no longer need to scramble to alter your vacation to fit your schedule.
2. Dropped or Abandoned Vacation Days:
At the end of the second round of bidding and prior to the commencement of the third round of bidding employees will be able to drop any portion of their round 1 & 2 bids and that the time will be replenished into their vacation bank.
Once the vacation bidding process starts, any days that are dropped, either by members so choosing as above or abandoned by members leaving the department, will not be put back into the vacation calendar until the entire process is completed. This will maintain the integrity of vacation awards of each round.
3. Heat Map:
During the time that members can enter their bids, the employer will have a ‘heat map’ available to show you vacation selections as they are made during the process. It will be updated twice each day as bids get submitted, it will help you to see what others are bidding. Members will be able to go in and change their bids up until the bid deadline of each bid round, but we hope that the heat map will help people to see how others are bidding and if they are bidding in a realistic manner for their relative seniority.
Workforce will provide more specifics on the heat map and how it can help you make realistic bids prior to the close of each round. The intent of the heat map is to improve the transparency that was missing in last year’s process. Remember, the heat map doesn’t show what has been assigned. It will show you however what others are planning to bid.
The heat map will be most effective if members submit their bids early in the bid process instead of waiting until the last day. Like I said, you can go in and change your bid up until the time the bid closes but by getting choices in early, everyone will be helped in the process.
4. Assigning Vacation and the ‘Call Back’ Process For Round 1 & 2:
Once the bid closes for round 1 and again for round 2*, the staff in the Workforce department will start to assign vacation in order of seniority and as per your vacation bid. If none of your choices can be awarded because all of your selections are taken by senior employees, you will be entitled to a call from Workforce. To qualify for the call from Workforce you must have submitted a ‘bona fide’ bid.
A bona fide bid is defined as follows:
a. The employee makes vacation selections from weeks that show available on the Vacation Calendar for that specific round of bidding;
b. The employee submits at least 5 selections **;
c. And submits at least 1 selection outside of July, August and the last two weeks of December (peak time).
*There will not be call backs for rounds 3 and beyond.
**You are free to submit as many selections as you wish. You are not limited to 5 selections and we encourage everyone in the mid to low seniorities to make more than 5 selections especially if you are hoping for peak time vacation. However, to qualify for a call back during round 1 and 2, regardless of your seniority, you must meet the requirements of a bona fide bid. Keep in mind that if you submit only five selections (four during peak time and one during off peak) and any of those are available, including the off peak time bid, that is what will be assigned and there won’t be a need for Workforce to call you. You will be called if all of your bids fail, including the nonpeak time, and you have met the above criteria.
In addition, we encourage everyone to be realistic when bidding their vacation. Some of the things you should consider when bidding include your relative seniority to others in your work group, the size of your work group and the amount of vacation available on the Vacation Calendar during each round.
Call back time lines:
As you can imagine, with close to 1200 employees and multiple departments, the call back process has to be streamline too. We have agreed that calls will take place between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM Monday to Friday. Workforce will call your work phone number first. However since it is possible that members could be on days off, different hours of work or out of the office or away from their phone for any number of reasons, each person will need to provide them with an alternate number so they can be reached and the process does not get stalled. If Workforce can’t reach you or your designate they will email you to let you know when they called and the phone numbers they called.
If they reach you, they will be able to let you know what is available so please be ready with other options. You won’t have time to call your spouse or check with others on what to choose next.
If on the other hand they don’t get a hold of you, you will have 30 minutes to call them back before they move on to the next person who requires a call. If you call back after the 30 minutes Workforce will still be able to help you with your vacation bid, however, you will be slotted in to the vacation bid next in seniority, at the time that you call.
5. Final Results:
Because we want to be sure as many people as possible get their vacation scheduled, we have agreed that the vacation scheduling process must be completed no later than December 22, 2017 instead of December 10.
6. Two Job Stewards working with Workforce:
We will have two of your job stewards working alongside Workforce staff, helping with the call back process. This will help ensure the agreement we have reached is followed, to trouble shoot any unforeseen consequences and problems that may arise and most importantly to ensure transparency for the membership.
I am hoping that these new initiatives will help to meet the members’ need around bidding vacation. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at atoth@moveuptogether.ca
In solidarity,
Annette Toth
Vice-President