16 August 2006

Financial settlement wraps up
arbitration on pressroom job

Media & Communications Workers of Alberta | TNG Canada Local 30400

A lengthy arbitration case in Alberta has finally been concluded with a Letter of Settlement on back wages and pension contribution.

The Red Deer Advocate, ordered by an arbitrator to give the job of apprentice pressman to Janice Contant instead of a male colleague, has agreed to pay back wages from Nov. 5, 2003 to June 30, 2006. She will receive $13,744 in a lump-sum payment and, as of July 1, was to earn an hourly wage of $18.79.

The employer has also agreed to contribute $4,229 towards her CWA/ITU Pension Plan to compensate for underpayments since late 2003, when her grievance was filed.

Following hearings that dragged out over two years, an arbitrator ruled in February that the newspaper's publisher was wrong to have rejected Contant for the position, citing her poor attitude. He had formed that opinion based on an assessment by Contant's supervisor, who had bullied and harassed her in the workplace. The publisher, said the arbitrator in overruling him, had exercised poor judgment in relying solely upon that supervisor's evaluation to make his hiring decision.

Because she and her colleague had been judged equally qualified for the position of apprentice pressman, the job went to Contant, the employee with more seniority, as stipulated in the union's contract.