SECTION 1 - DEFINITION

a) Except as outlined in Article 2, Section 3, seniority is defined as the length of an employee's service with the Company, calculated as the elapsed time from the date they were first employed, unless their seniority was broken, in which event such calculation shall be from the date that they returned to work following the last break in their seniority.

b) Employees with a common seniority date will be put on the seniority list in the order in which they were dispatched or as otherwise agreed to by the Union and the Company. Seniority service records shall not be considered broken by reason of:


1. Absence on leave when granted mutually by the Company and the Union.
   
   
2. Absence due to seasonal lay off, providing the employee reports to work within seven (7) days after written notice to report has been sent by registered mail to their last address registered with the Company; provided that when an employee is recalled to work and does not report the Company may recall the next employee in line but they are subject to being displaced if the first employee does report within seven (7) days. The Shop Steward will be notified of the recall.
   
   
3. Sickness or injury.
   
   
4. Active service in the Canadian Armed Forces during national emergencies.
   
   
5. Continuous lay off of less than twelve (12) months.
   
   

SECTION 2 - PROCEDURE REGARDING LAY OFFS

STEP 1
Should it become necessary to reduce the regular working force, all permit card help must be laid off before any Union members are laid off.

STEP 2

a) When it becomes necessary to reduce a departmental work force, members shall be laid off in reverse order of their plant seniority from within that department provided the senior employee is willing and able to perform the required duties at the classified rate for the job.

b) Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is understood and agreed that an employee who is being trained pursuant to the provisions of the posting system, and who are supernumery to the department, are exempt from these layoff provisions.

c) If any employee has a shift cancelled mid week (after the revised schedule has been posted), due to the lack of raw materials or packaging, and strictly as a result of an immediate supervisor not ordering the materials needed in a timely manner, the Employer shall contact the employee and arrange for alternate scheduling within a department required. This shall be done in order for the employee to obtain their original scheduled hours of work for that week. No other junior employee's work schedule shall be disrupted as a result of this accommodation. In the event that this happens, the affected employee shall be required to work where designated and shall not have the option of refusing the work.

STEP 3

a) Employees laid off from their department in accordance with Step 2 above, shall have the right to bump the most junior person in the plant whose job they are willing and able to perform, subject to the following conditions:


(i) The regular schedule will be posted as per Article 4, Section 1 (c).

(ii) It is the employee's responsibility to inform the supervisor involved of their desire to bump by 10:00 a.m. Friday of the preceding week.

(iii) A revised schedule will be posted by 2:00 p.m. Friday listing those employee's scheduled for work in the following week. It is the Employer's responsibility to ensure affected employee's are notified of any changes, preferably by direct contact or by leaving a taped message for the employee's to access.

(iv) The final decision as to whether or not an employee is able to perform a job and can exercise their bumping rights shall be made by the Company.

(v) The Company reserves the right to train senior employees to enable them to exercise their bumping rights.


b) Employee's laid off shall receive their record of employment within forty-eight (48) hours or as soon as possible thereafter.

c) With respect to layoffs, consideration will be given to effective scheduling and planning by the Company, the Union and the employee's to allow employee's to stabilize income resources and allow the Company to run efficiently. The Union and the Company agree to cooperate to allow the employee's to stabilize income resources. Employees are responsible for advising the Company that they wish to be considered for this benefit. This clause in no way compels the Company to operate in an inefficient manner or without sufficient and or qualified manpower.

SECTION 3 - PROCEDURE REGARDING RECALL

a) When staffs are augmented employees will be recalled in order of their plant seniority provided that the senior employee is willing and able to perform the work required of them at the classified rate for the job.

b) Employees shall be guaranteed a minimum of eight (8) hours between shifts. In the event their seniority is such that the Employer recalls them prior to the eight (8) hours elapsing, they shall be paid at the rate of double time from the commencement of their shift until the full eight (8) hours has elapsed between shifts. The Company shall not be permitted to recall employees out of seniority in order to circumvent this provision. This provision however, shall not apply in the event it is a bumping situation.

c) Employees on layoff in Prince George shall ensure that they are available for recall on a daily basis between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. In the event that it becomes necessary for the Company to recall employee's outside of these hours, every effort shall be made to contact employee's in accordance with subsection (a) above. However, employee's who are not available outside of the hours stipulated above shall not be held blameworthy, nor shall they be permitted to grieve the loss of work. Recall employee's who are unavailable for three (3) consecutive shifts, without having received prior approval from the Company to be absent when that is possible, may be subject to discipline up to and including termination.

SECTION 4 - DAILY JOB VACANCY REPLACEMENT PROCEDURES
Subject to the efficient operation of the Company, when a job vacancy is created due to the absence of the scheduled employee, the following provisions will be used as a guideline to fill the vacancy:

1. Consideration will be given to employees who:

a) Are able to do the work and,

b) Are scheduled in the department in which the vacancy exists and,

c) Are in the plant at the time the vacancy is to be filled and,

d) Have advised their supervisor (or chargehand) of their desire to do the job vacated.

e) Maintenance personnel and Lead Hands are exempt from the above provisions, and shall not be expected to replace those vacancies, which arise.


2. From the employees who meet the criteria above, the job vacancy will be filled by:

a) The senior employees holding a posting in that department, otherwise;

b) The senior employee able to do the job that is vacant.


3. No penalties or additional costs will be incurred by the Company in accommodating employees as per item number two, (2) above.

4. To fill the job vacancy left by the employee selected in item number two (2) above, the vacancy will be filled in any manner the Company chooses as long as any employee called in from layoff is the senior employee able to do the job required of them.

5. The preceding procedures do not restrict the Company in any way from not filling vacant positions or filling vacant positions on a temporary basis or changing employee's work assignments or changing production schedules in reacting to manpower shortages and production needs.

SECTION 5 - SEVERANCE PAY

1. An employee shall be eligible for a separation payment as set forth below if on any date during their layoff the hours scheduled for them during the previous twelve (12) consecutive months were less than fifty percent (50%) of normal full time hours.

2. Severance payments shall not be made:


a) To employees who are discharged for just cause.

b) To employees who have not completed their probation period.

c) In the event of closing due to Acts of God, public enemy, war, or disaster.


3. Severance pay shall be seven hundred and twenty five dollars ($725.00) for each year of seniority (pro-rated for incomplete years).

4. Employees shall not be removed from the seniority list until the employee accepts their severance allowance.

5. In the event of a plant closure all employee benefits will be maintained for three (3) months.

SECTION 6 - JOB POSTINGS - DEFINITIONS

a) A permanent posting shall be the governing posting in the filling of job vacancies. Whenever possible, if an employee is working and their job posting is being performed, they will be scheduled to perform their posted job if they are the senior employee on shift holding that posted position. However, in the event of departmental layoff, the junior person in that department shall be laid off first and so on in that order. It is understood that said employees shall retain the right to bump into the junior position in other departments as far as their seniority permits.

b) A training posting shall be used when the Company perceives the need for training to cover vacant jobs created by time off, scheduling, sickness, increased workload or for reasons in which the employee holding the permanent posting will not be able to fill their position. The employee so trained will be expected to fill these positions when scheduled or directed.

SECTION 7 - POSTING PROCEDURE
1. NOTICE

a) Whenever a job posting is available in any of the departments, the Company shall post a standard notice on the posting bulletin board for at least five (5) production days soliciting the names of employee's who wish to apply to fill such posting.

b) The standard notice on the bulletin board shall specify:

1. The type of job posting (permanent or training).

2. The job available.

3. The qualifications required.

4. The rate of pay and wherever possible, an outline of the work required and the approximate conditions of temperature, humidity, and general environment to which the employee will be exposed.

5. Where "any other duties delegated" is specified under the outline of work required. It is understood that any other duties delegated shall remain duties within the same department and with regards to the same process involved.

c) Any Union employee covered by this Agreement may sign the job posting.

d) The Company shall discuss with the Union committee the particular job requirements of the posting, and come to a mutual agreement as to what the above article encompasses.

2. SELECTION

a) In cases involving training postings, the posting shall be filled, within reason, by the senior applicant.

b) In cases involving permanent postings, the Company will select the most senior employee who suits the training requirement after consulting with the Union.

c) In the event differences arise which cannot normally be settled, as to which of the applicants should be given a trial to fill the job posting, the matter shall, within three (3) days after the said differences arise, be dealt with under Article 13, Grievance Procedure, starting with STEP 3 of Section 3 thereof.

d) Employee's shall be permitted to hold one (1) permanent posting and one (1) training postings at any one time. It is understood and agreed that Packaging postings in the Bottling and Canning sections shall be considered as one (1) posting rather than two (2).

3. TRAINING AND TRIAL PERIOD

a) The person selected shall be given a reasonable training period to learn the job.

b) Employees accepted for postings will have a certain period of time (to be negotiated between the Company and the Union for each job) during which they have the right to turn down the posting and return to their former job.

c) Upon completion of said training period, employees shall be granted up to a thirty (30) production day trial period to prove their suitability. In cases of unsuitability, the department shop steward shall receive prior notification.

d) The person selected shall be transferred to the posted job within twenty (20) working days provided that there is a replacement available.

e) An employee absent from work for not more than three (3) weeks will have the right to apply within five (5) days of their return to work, but this need not delay filling the job within the period.

f) In the event of unsuitability, or the exercising of rights in Section 7, Clause 3 (b), the selection process will start again with the same sign up list that the original employee was selected from.

g) Employee's who, by reason of physical deficiency are required to transfer from their present job will retain their plant seniority.

In all cases where it is necessary to transfer an employee for the aforementioned reason, the Company and the Union will mutually decide on the job to which employee will be transferred.

h) Any employee who has had a time lapse of more than four (4) months in a particular job that they are trained in, and is required to fill a vacancy in that job, shall be entitled to an uninterrupted re-training period to fill that requirement. The Union and the Company shall meet to determine the time period required to retrain an employee on a case by case basis, exclusive to layoff procedures.

SECTION 8 - SENIORITY RESPECTING OVERTIME

a) In the event it is necessary to work unforeseen overtime, the employee performing that job will be asked first. Thereafter, the following selection process will apply to those employee's who are able to perform the duties required in order of their plant seniority.


1. Employees working in the department

2. Employees working in the plant

3. Employees not on shift

b) In the event the Employer wishes to schedule overtime shifts on Saturdays, Sundays, or Statutory Holidays, employee's who are able to do the work required will be asked, in order of their plant seniority in the following manner:


1. Employees who have not had the opportunity to work 40 hours in the week just ended due to layoff.

2. Employees working in the department concerned.

3. Plant wide.

SECTION 9 - TRANSFER OUTSIDE THE BARGAINING UNIT
If a Union member accepts employment with the Company in a classification outside the bargaining unit, he shall retain his seniority for a period not to exceed ninety (90) days from the date he accepts such employment.