October 21, 2021 - The Union is very happy to announce that after an eight (8) year fight we have won an arbitration worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, one of the largest damage awards against Telus in our Union's history!
The fight started when Telus created a new work group called Concierge, that included members in BC and Alberta. These members were doing the work of a new job that was not evaluated to determine fair compensation, which is a breach of the collective agreement. We grieved this in 2013 and 2014. Arbitrator Sullivan stated in the original award: “This group of employees is doing all the work that would have previously been performed by six employees and three different job classifications, one of which was a quasi-job classification.”
As it was awarded on December 14, 2018, those agents should have been paid Group E wages in the same manner of Loyalty & Retention agents. When it came to paying out those funds to the approximately 195 agents, Telus argued that SIP (sales incentive) payments would need to be deducted as Concierge had a different (higher) SIP than Loyalty & Retention.
Your Union didn’t agree with that position and fought hard against it. We went back before the Arbitrator in March 2020, as we couldn’t reach agreement on the payout calculations and have been waiting for a ruling.
At long last, the Arbitrator has agreed with the Union “the SIP monies paid in the present case constitute an earned benefit for performing work for the Company, and do not resemble an indemnity program or compensating advantage that can properly be used to offset a remedial damage claim.”
The retroactive difference between wages of Wage Groups D and E for the affected employees for the period of question totals $742,167.48. From this amount, the Company had deducted enhanced SIP payments that exceed Loyalty & Retention SIP and has arrived at a total amount owed of $303,169.60.
Because of this win, the full $742,167.48 is ordered to be paid!
We would like to thank our members for their resilience and patience. This win could not have been done without members standing up and the hard work of the Local Union Reps involved along with dedicated Stewards. Special thanks to retired Vice President, Betty Carrasco, for all her hard work.
We will be working with the company to distribute this award.
In Solidarity,
USW Local 1944
