Bulletin
CMBC – Attendance Management Program
March 31, 2017
To: All JS and EC at CMBC and TransLink
At our recent job steward meeting a number of you expressed interest in the employers Attendance Management Program and how it came to be implemented in its present form. As mentioned at the meeting, the AMP was implemented in 1998 but subsequently challenged by CAW (now Unifor). Aspects of the Program were found discriminatory and overturned after several legal battles, which culminated in a hearing at the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and the Court of Appeal for British Columbia. CAW spearheaded this fight due to the fact that members of their union had been terminated in a fashion which was deemed discriminatory.
MoveUP (then COPE 378) had not seen members terminated under the AMP, however we have nonetheless been critical of the Program both in its past and current form. It is our view that sick leave is for use during illness and that attending work while ill is to the detriment of yourself and your coworkers. We therefore have never been in favour of programs aimed at avoiding or minimizing the use of sick leave.
Ultimately, the Courts determined what was and was not permissible in the AMP and it was adjusted accordingly. Attached you can find the 2009 decision of the Supreme Court, and the 2010 decision of the Court of Appeal. For your information, I have also included a memo issued by CMBC in 2011 regarding the amendments to the Program.
We hope this will be helpful. Of course we are happy to discuss the AMP further at the next meeting if you have additional questions or concerns.
In solidarity,
Stephen Von Sychowski, Union Representative
Alicia Gallo, Vice President Combined Units