August 26, 2007

TO: ALL LOCAL PRESIDENTS and L.E.C. MEMBERS IN REGION FOUR

Re: REGION FOUR WEEKEND EDUCATIONAL - October 27 and 28, 2007
Delta Ottawa Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario

The courses being offered are:

1. New Stewards - Part Two
2. Advanced Grievance Handling
3. Contract Interpretation
4. Employee Benefits
5. WSIB - Level One
6. WSIB - Level Two

Applications must be approved by one of your Local Officers (ie. President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer or Chief Steward), and must be received in the Ottawa Regional Office no later than FRIDAY, September 21, 2007. There will be no extension of this deadline and no applications will be accepted by telephone. Students will be selected by the Regional Vice-President and Board Members.

Local Presidents should be aware that, according to Board Policy, the Local is responsible for each member who attends such a course. When an applicant does not attend and the Regional Office has not been so advised 48 hours prior to the commencement of the educational, the Local will be assessed a $50 penalty, to be deducted from the next Local rebate. Extenuating circumstances will be taken into consideration.

Bedroom accommodation requests should be submitted directly to the Hotel. A reservation sheet is enclosed. All billings must be paid upon checkout and you will be reimbursed on submission of your expense claim. Members who live within 60 km. of the Hotel are entitled to accommodation for Saturday night only. Expenses for family and dependent care will be paid or provided in accordance with OPSEU's Policy. (Please see the attached Expense Guidelines.)

The Policy regarding payment of wages at the Educational was changed at the Annual Convention held in April 1999. Please see the attached information regarding this matter.

Please distribute the enclosed forms to interested members in your Local. If you have any questions, please direct them to Carol Woolford in the Ottawa Regional Office at: 1-800-268-7376.

ON BEHALF OF REGION FOUR'S EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS AND STAFF:

Carol Woolford, Regional Secretary, Ottawa

The following Expenses will be covered by OPSEU Head Office. Claim forms will be provided at the Educational.

Travelling:
To and from the meeting by the MOST ECONOMICAL MEANS available.
Mileage Rate: 40¢ per km.

Accommodation is at the Delta Ottawa Hotel
Accommodation is reimbursed on the basis of twin occupancy. If you request single or double accommodation, you are responsible for the additional cost.

Room Rates for the weekend: Single $ 139.00 + taxes
Double $ 139.00 + taxes
Shared (with Member) $ 69.50 + taxes (per person)

Parking: Parking is NOT included in the price of your hotel room.

Lost Wages:
Lost wages can be claimed for attendance at a weekend educational in accordance with the policy only if the request for time off or, at the very least, an intention to claim for time off is submitted at the time that the registration for the educational is submitted.

Meal Claim Allowance:
Breakfast: $11.00
Lunch: $15.00
Dinner: $24.00

Family and Attendant Care:
Members who choose homecare providers can submit a claim for childcare at the rate of $5.00 per hour to a maximum of 12 hours. Overnight fee is $40.00 to a maximum of $100.00 per 24-hour period, as per Board Policy.

Wage Claims for Educationals

A resolution was passed at Convention 1999 to reinstate a member's ability to claim for lost wages to attend Educationals.

The thinking at the time was that is wasn't fair for members who work weekends to have to take vacation days or comp days to attend an educational when members who don't work weekends didn't have a problem attending on their regularly scheduled time off. On the other hand, there were some who felt it wasn't fair for those who work weekends to be paid to attend an educational and still get their time off during the week. Clearly there were two sides to the issue, but the delegates decided to pay time off for members who work shifts.

At the next meeting of the officers, they decided that the intent of the motion will have been honoured if a region dedicates 10% of its education budget for lost wages. The officers left it up to each region to establish their own rules about how to pay lost wage claims. In Region Four we place a lot of importance on educating our members. We will do our best to compensate those who need time off while remaining within budget.

The Education Committee has decided that it will dedicate $10,000 to pay lost wages this year. As two Regional Educationals are being planned, each will have $5,000 allotted to pay for lost wages. The money will be distributed among all wage claimers - pro-rated up to 100% of actual wages for each educational. For example, this means that if $6,000 in lost wages is claimed for the Spring Educational, each of the wage claimers will get 83.3% of their claim. Hopefully the local would see fit to top up the difference.

This formula was used for previous educationals and has worked reasonably well. However, the following issues need to be addressed.

1. The request for time off or, at the very least, an intention to claim for time off must be submitted at the time that the registration for the educational is submitted.

One time a number of wage claims came in after an educational, when the members submitted their expense claims. The members explained they did not know when they submitted their registration forms whether or not they would be scheduled to work. If the work schedule isn't made up yet and your members know they wish to attend the weekend educational being held, then they should ask their employer not to be scheduled for work that weekend. Furthermore, late wage claims make it impossible for the staff coordinating the educational to let others know in advance how much their claim is actually worth.

2. Proof of time off in the form of a letter from the employer must accompany the claim - lost wages will only be paid for prescheduled shifts on Saturday and Sunday (at straight time).

Time off will not be paid for travel time on Friday and time off will not be paid for anything other than straight time. The letter from the employer must give full details of the basis for the claim.