Edwards v. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency

Full Text

149-34-232, 166-34-30642 to 30646, 31075 to 31077 and 31097 (2002 PSSRB 72)
Edwards v. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency

Before: G. Giguère
Appearances: M. Tynes, for the Grievor; H. Newman, for the Employer
Decision rendered: August 9, 2002

Workforce adjustment — Surplus status salary protection — Rate of pay (experience increment) — the grievor's position as a teacher was declared surplus — as a result, he accepted a lower level position at the PM-01 level with salary protection at his former position's rate of pay — the grievor filed nine grievances complaining that he was not receiving the appropriate pay as protected by the surplus status — five grievances (166-34-30642 to 30646) and the application for extension of time (149-34-232) were withdrawn — in relation to the four remaining grievances, the employer indicated that the grievor had received all of the economic increases that were accorded to the ED-EST group (his former position) — however, according to the employer, he was not entitled to the "Teaching experience" increment in the ED-EST salary grid as he did not meet the requirement of the collective agreement which is based on "teaching experience years" — the adjudicator concluded that the question that had to be determined was whether, under the collective agreement, the grievor was entitled to receive the experience increment even if he was not teaching — the adjudicator found that the collective agreement had to be read as a whole to determine the grievor's entitlement to the annual experience increment — the adjudicator concluded that, as the grievor had not been teaching since he started working as a PM-01, these years of service could not be counted as years of teaching experience — therefore, the grievor was not entitled to any increments on that basis for those periods.

Grievances denied.

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