Part-time staff at Service Canada call centres score victory on work hours

After a lengthy battle with the employer, part-time workers whose weekly hours are temporarily extended to the full-time mark will now be treated as if they were full-timers. While their part-time status will not be affected, their periods of full-time work will bring improved benefits including pay for statutory holidays.

There are large numbers of part-time staff at call centres and they are regularly called upon to work full-time hours during peak periods. Until now, this meant they enjoyed none of the benefits full-timers despite working 37.5 hours per week for months at a time.

The new arrangement is conditional on working full-time hours for at least a two-month period, a threshold that can be met in most cases according to Genie McDougall, President of CEIU Local 648 (Scarborough, Ontario). McDougall, herself a call-centre worker, was among the union activists who had pushed for the change for over three years as a member of the National Health and Welfare Union. She called new arrangement as a “marvelous victory” adding “Jeannette (Meunier-McKay, CEIU National President) was behind this improvement from the start and pressed the employer continuously for the change.”

Part-time members affected by the change will be notified in writing by the employer. “This news will be welcomed, I’m sure” said CEIU National President Jeannette Meunier-McKay, “because it brings both financial improvements and greater respect for our part-time members.”