team will review the background information, the current collective agreement, and the confidential instructions provided.

HRP 114 – Employee and Labour Relations

ASSIGNMENT: Contract Negotiation

In this assignment you will be negotiating the renewal of your collective agreement. The Employer is Clean Right Partners Inc. and the Union is Allied Service Union Canada Local # 254.

1. Your team will review the background information, the current collective agreement, and the confidential instructions provided.

1. Each member of the team will prepare proposed language for the demands that you are issued. In consultation with your bargaining team, you will provide a brief discussion of the bargaining zone for each of your demands. Each of you will upload this document “Demand Bargaining Zone Template” by March 10th at 9:00 pm in iLearn.

1. Your team will prepare one document that includes all the team proposals “Team Proposal Template”. This document will be uploaded in iLearn by one team member by March 16th at 9:00 pm and it will be presented to the other team during class on March 17th, 2022 (Professor will upload the document in Group Lockers in iLearn prior to class) You may want to print out the document for class.

   1. The contract proposals should incorporate any suggestions or instructions provided in the confidential instructions.

   2. The proposals must follow the order of the collective agreement.

   3. Demands relating to any new terms for the agreement must be placed at the end of the proposal.

1. The teams will bargain during class on March 24, 31, April 7 and attempt to negotiate a renewal of the collective agreement.

   • During the negotiation process union and management teams will caucus as necessary and may have to meet outside of classroom time to discuss tactics, demands, concessions, and possible terms of settlement.

1. When the teams have negotiated an agreement, the Notice of Agreement Template must be completed and uploaded in iLearn. (During virtual bargaining, this step will be skipped)

1. Memorandum of Settlement: Each team will submit a Memorandum of Settlement by April 7h 8:00 pm. A sample Memorandum of Settlement is attached.

1. Final Offer Selection. Negotiations are completed including the Memorandum of Settlement by April 7th. If your team has not reached an agreement by the deadline there is a penalty of 10% of your mark. In addition, this would involve each team submitting a final offer to the professor and I will serve as the Arbitrator and choose between the two offers. An additional penalty of 5% of your mark will be further imposed upon the team whose offer was not selected. (Note: Rather than submit to a final offer selection, I encourage you to negotiate your agreement by end of class March 31st.

1. A list of Team Members along with the demands allocated to each team member, is provided in a separate document.

1. Student Peer Evaluation: Team members will complete evaluations for each team member other than themselves. The peer evaluations are confidential. Team members must submit their evaluations by uploading in iLearn by 9:00 pm on April 7th. Any evaluation not received will provide a zero grade to the evaluator.

MANAGEMENT

Contract Negotiation Simulation

Clean Right Partners Inc

You will be provided with further information and instructions regarding the analysis and a possible renewal of the collective agreement provided below between Clean Right Partners Incorporated and the Allied Service Union Canada.

Background

Clean Right Partners is an independent, private-sector operation located in a major urban centre in your province. The company was established in 1997 by brothers Michael and Zack Cummings. The brothers had previously owned a chain of dry cleaning stores which they sold to open Clean Right Partners. Their initial clients were two area hospitals and one nursing home. Due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the two brothers, the business grew quickly and over the next two decades has become a major player in health care, industrial uniform and linen cleaning services in the region. Clean Right Partners was unionized on two occasions: first, in 2007, for production and maintenance personnel (a total of 110 full-time and part-time staff represented by SEIU); then in 2010, by Allied Services Union Canada (ASU) for drivers and loading dock employees (a total of 19 full-time and part-time). The company has a small human resources department with a director, health and safety coordinator, benefits coordinator, HR assistant and HR clerk-receptionist. The HR director handles all union-related matters with the support from time-to-time of outside legal counsel. There have been two prior collective agreements between ASU and the company. While the first collective agreement was achieved with the help of mediation after a rather acrimonious start, the second round of bargaining proceeded to a successful conclusion without the threats of either a strike or a lockout.

While Clean Right Partners is a major player in the health care and industrial uniform and linen markets in their region, there has been a strong rumour over the last six months of a possible corporate acquisition by a renowned provincial cleaning and linen service company. The Cummings brothers are approaching retirement age yet maintain they are not entertaining any overtures from this or any other potential buyer. Needless to say, union members throughout the company are somewhat anxious with this situation. The current collective agreement between the company and ASU does not contain any language regarding contracting out or mergers and acquisition scenarios that may affect bargaining unit members.

Issues arising Under the Collective Agreement

For the company

• Grievance procedure—introduce language before the reference to Step 1 that articulates the necessity of first having a “complaint stage” to allow the affected employee(s) to discuss the issue with the supervisor in an attempt to resolve the matter. Also suggest time limits associated with this process (Article 4—New).

• Discipline and discharge—strike out “verbal” from first line in Article 5.02.

• Employee record—replace time limit for clearing record from 10 months to 24 months (Article 6.01).

• Compensation—change “will” to “may” in Article 11.02 regarding company payment of parking tickets.

• Compensation—change safety shoe allowance period from 12 to 18 months (Article 11.03).

• Sick leave—current accumulation formula but stop any “carry-over” or “pay-out” of unused credits from one year to the next (Article 20).

Another Important Matter

While Clean Right Partners is a major player in the health care and industrial uniform and linen markets in their region, there has been a strong rumour over the last six months of a possible corporate acquisition by a renowned provincial cleaning and linen service corporation. The Cummings brothers are approaching retirement age yet maintain they are not entertaining any overtures from this or any other potential buyer. Needless to say, union members throughout the company are somewhat anxious with this situation. The current collective agreement between the company and ASU does not contain any language regarding contracting out or mergers and acquisition scenarios that may affect bargaining unit members.

NOTICE OF AGREEMENT

The union and the company reached agreement at (time)___________________________,

on (date) _______________________________.

____________________________

Union representative

_____________________________

Management representative

Note: This document must be completed and signed by at least one union and one management team member. This notice should be submitted to your instructor as part of the final submission for the Contract Negotiation assignment.

(During virtual bargaining, this form is not necessary)

This bargaining assignment is worth 40% of your final grade for the course. The marks for the negotiation assignment will be broken down as follows:

• 15% individual negotiations (see rubric below)

• 10% based on team results achieved (determined by Memorandum of Settlement submitted)

• 5% team proposal template submitted

In addition, marks will go towards individual class participation as follows:

• 10% demand bargaining zone, peer evaluations submitted and participation

The marks for the team results achieved will be allocated as follows:

1. Each issue will be marked out of 10 for each team. For each issue there are 16 total points available, which must be divided between the union and the management team. For example, on issue 1 management achieves a better result and the points are divided as follows: 9 for the management team and 7 for the union team. For issue 2 the union achieves a better result and the points are allocated with 10 going to the union team and 6 to the management team. This means that a bargaining team can make concessions in some areas, provided that better results are achieved in other areas.

1. Marks will be deducted if an agreement is not reached by the strike or lockout deadline as noted earlier. A penalty of 10% will occur if no agreement is reached. A further penalty of 5% will be imposed to your team if your final offer was not selected.

Confidential Management Bargaining Team Instructions

To: Management Bargaining Team

From: Senior Management

Subject: Contract Renewal Negotiations

This memo provides instructions to members of the management bargaining team representing Clean Right Partners Inc. for the upcoming contract negotiations with your Union, Allied Service Union Canada Local # 254. The bargaining team is instructed to deal with the issues referred to here and any issues raised by the union during negotiations. The team is directed to negotiate an agreement with the union that to the extent possible falls within the limits prescribed in this memo. If any issues arise in negotiations that are not covered in this memo the team is authorized to settle those issues on the best terms possible.

1. Article 2 Union Security

The current agreement provides that the employer must supply the Union a list of employees and their respective Social Insurance Numbers (personal information) for which the employer has deducted union dues. The employer does not wish to have the liability of providing personal information to the union. The employer should demand that this information be removed and replaced with an alternate identifier.

1. Article 4 Grievance Procedure

The Management team must demand that a complaint stage be included in these provisions. This will permit the employee to discuss their concern with the supervisor and reach an agreement before the grievance procedure is implemented.

The current agreement provides that the employee may present the facts of the case beginning at Step 2 of the grievance procedure. Management should take the position that the union has the responsibility to represent the employee and this option is an unnecessary provision and should be removed. The Management team may make an exception to this demand in the case of discharge.

1. Article 5 Discipline

This article provides any verbal warnings issues by a member of management requires the presence of a union representative. This is an unnecessary provision and Management must demand that “verbal” be removed from 5.01.

This article makes it a requirement that a union member must be present during any disciplinary meeting with the employee and that failure to do so will make any discipline null and void. The Management team should take the position that there may be circumstances, such as assault or incarceration, where the employee or the union representative is not available and that this provision should be amended to include “where practical” a union representative would be made available.

1. Article 6 Employee Record

This Article provides a sunset clause where an employee’s current disciplinary record will be “clean” after of 10 months. The Management team should take the position that this is insufficient time to measure a change in the employee’s behaviour and demand an increase of this time to 24 months or longer.

1. Article 8 Representation

This article provides that union representative wages will be paid during grievance investigation or meetings and during negotiations. The Management team should take the position that the union should be paying for the union representatives time for those activities associated with the grievance procedure, including arbitration, and during bargaining. Failure to bargain this the Management team should seek to amend the agreement that a union representative will be provided reasonable amount of time to conduct their activities during the grievance procedure. Management’s concern is that a union representative may take an inappropriate amount of time on a grievance.

1. Article 9 No Strikes / No Lockouts

This article provides that employees are not required to cross a legal picket line. The Management team should seek to delete this provision as it is a form of illegal work stoppage not permitted by the legislation.

1. Article 10 Statutory Holidays

This Article provides that if a statutory holiday falls during an employee’s vacation period that they will be provided an extra day vacation or pay in lieu of the day. This represents an additional cost to the company. The additional cost would be to pay which is not required by the legislation, or the additional day in lieu as the company may need to replace that worker at a later time. Management would prefer to remove the cost or only pay for the statutory holiday.

1. Article 11 Compensation

1. Management should resist any wage increases above the cost of living. Any wage increase considered by Management needs to include any consideration for an increase of cost of living. For example, if the projected cost of living increases by 2% in a calendar year and the company is also willing to provide a real wage increase of 1% then the total agreed to wage increase would be 3%. This will protect the company in the event the cost of living is greater than 2%. The Management team should resist any language that permit a wage increase be based on any increase in the cost of living.

1. The current agreement also provides for $130 purchase for safety shoes after 12 months without any limitations. The Management team should seek to increase the shoe allowance period to 18 months and to include a provision that approval for new shoes are to be obtained from management in advance. This would eliminate any unnecessary costs associated with replacing shoes that are in good condition.

1. This article also requires that all parking tickets by employees be paid by the employer. The Management team should seek to remove this provision.

1. Article 12 Vacations with Pay

The current agreement permits an employee to take all their vacation at one time. The Management team should seek a limitation on these requests due to concerns over scheduling and provide that all vacation requests must be approved by management in advance.

1. Article 14 Seniority

There are no current provisions for determining the order of seniority in the event that two employees have the same seniority date. Tie-breaker language needs to be determined.

1. Article 16 Leaves of Absences

This Article defines several leaves and defines different durations depending on the relationship with the employee. These definitions may not be compliant with provincial legislation. Review provincial employment standards act for compliance and make appropriate demands. The Management team should seek to reduce the amount of time off for bereavement.

1. Article 20 Sick Leave

Management should seek to eliminate the carry over of unused credits from one year to the next. See Article 20.

1. Article 21 No Discrimination

This Article outlines those individuals who are protected under this Article. The individuals protected is often amended by provincial or federal legislation. This language should be amended to state that employees will not be discriminate with respect to terms and conditions of employment on ground identified by provincial or federal legislation.

1. Article 22 Term of Agreement

The bargaining team is instructed to pursue a three-year agreement.

Additional Demands

1. Outsourcing / Merger/ Acquisitions

The current agreement does not provide for any payments to employees who have been permanently laid off or terminated without cause. While there are no current plans to sell the business, in order to maintain marketability of company the Management team must limit the amount of any severance cost that may result in a change of ownership.