Sick Leave
Question: “How can you protect my right to sick leave? Sick leave doesn’t matter if you can’t access it.” Members have reported the Employer’s attendance management program bars them from using their sick bank.
COPE’s position is that “When you’re sick, you’re sick”. The sick leave we have bargained for in the Collective Agreement should be accessible to everyone without fear of reprisal as long as they have medical documentation to attest to their illness.
COPE has grieved instances within which letters that the employer provides to members which the employer believes are non-disciplinary actually end up using disciplinary language, and these letters have been thrown out.
COPE support members to ensure that they do not divulge more to the employer than they are required to. You never owe your Employer a formal diagnosis.
COPE is proud that we have never had an Employer proceed with any level of formal discipline related to attendance management throughout our tenure as the Union representing healthcare workers. With your vote, we will keep that same energy.
Health care workers experience disproportionate levels of burnout and exhaustion as a result of their employment. Sick leave is an enshrined right not only within our Collective Agreement, and the Ontario Human Rights Code says that you cannot be discriminated based on disability. We promise to work hard to ensure the sick leave we have bargained for is yours to take without any concern of denial or discipline.
My Employer Is Harassing Me
Question: “I feel like my Employer is harassing me. What are my options?”
COPE responds quickly, thoroughly and effectively to your concerns.
First of all, we take time to listen to you. We will always make time to hear what’s going on.
Next, we’ll work with you to gather all relevant collateral information.
Workplace bullying can be insidious. It can sometimes involve excessive or unjustified criticism, over-monitoring of work, withholding information, trivial fault finding, or setting unrealistic goals or deadlines.
COPE is there with you every step of the way to escalate concerns and get results, which has included written apologies from the Employer and other positive outcomes for members through grievances.
Two Tier Policies
Question: “In some Collective Agreements, TAs accrue less vacation time than Care Coordinators. Why?”
Two tier policies are instances where one job class gets less than another. COPE never has and never will engage in two tier policies. We fight for one and for all, and value all job classes equally.
Even if the other Unions say that they do not believe in two-tier policies, some of their actions show a different story.
For example, two-tier language still exists in CUPE’s Central West Collective Agreement. And even though CUPE has passed bargaining policy against two-tier language back in 2014 promising that this language wouldn’t proceed going forward, over 10 years later, this two-tier language still exists in their most recent Collective Agreement (Central West Collective Agreement, Article 22.01, p. 28).