Sunday, December 4, 2022

You Work Hard for Your Money

Make sure you’re getting paid every cent owed to you

By Mira Ponomarenko, Ontario Healthcare Coordinator

How do you know that your pay is correct? Check your pay stub!

It is a simple thing, yet for several years now many workers at Revera long term care and retirement homes have not been able to do that. Since switching to a new WorkDay payroll system, their pay stubs routinely show incorrect information.

Their employers were using the wrong wage rates, missing sick banks, not enrolling them in the benefits plan, deducting incorrect pension contributions, or not properly calculating vacation pay, to name just a few problems.

CLAC discovered the errors in fall 2019. Despite many efforts to fix things—including filing grievances—the pay issues have continued. When CLAC representatives investigated further, many more problems came to light, even those that members did not flag right away.

Because Revera was not able to address members’ concerns, the union filed a group grievance on behalf of members in 15 facilities.

Since then, representatives and lawyers have spent hundreds of hours tracking down issues, investigating mysteriously missing sick banks, and making sure that members are properly compensated for the work that they do. We filed for arbitration and proceeded with a hearing in May 2022.

Faced with overwhelming evidence, the employer was forced to share significant amounts of information about their payroll. The result? We have discovered more problems, many of which represented losses for members!

In early November 2022, another arbitration hearing was held, and CLAC requested prehearing for an external third-party audit of the employer’s payroll system. The arbitrator did not grant our request but did say, “As the parties move forward, the speed at which the issues are identified and corrected must be addressed.”

As a result, the myriad of outstanding grievances remain outstanding and unresolved. Since the problem was discovered, we have tirelessly pursued Revera to fix the issues.

It takes time to conduct investigations and arbitrations. And getting things actually fixed for thousands of members is no small feat.

At the time of writing, we are proud to report that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wrong pension contributions, vanishing vacation banks, missing sick leave, and incorrect pay has been discovered and restored for members.

The fight is far from over, but we will not rest until Revera fixes all the mistakes in its payroll system, and members receive everything they are owed. After all, that’s why we’re here.

You work hard for your money, so be diligent in checking your pay stubs. If you spot an error, let your steward or representative know. We will make sure you’re getting paid every cent owed to you.

You Work Hard for Your Money

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