CUPE is committed to minimizing precarious work. Working as a part-time, relief, or casual employee is a difficult and unpredictable way to make ends meet for many people in our communities. To minimize precarious work, CUPE has negotiated language that creates as many full-time positions as possible and obligates the employer to continuously review employee scheduling to maximize our members’ job stability.

Under the terms of Article 27.24 of the CUPE-SAHO collective agreement, the employer has an obligation to employ as many full-time employees as it can. When part-time positions are vacated, the employer and union must discuss how shifts will be redistributed to see where a full-time position can be created or where more hours can be added to an existing part-time position (in order of seniority). Two vacant part-time positions may be combined to create one full-time position.

Article 27.24 also requires the employer to review ongoing and regularly scheduled relief hours with a view to first adding those hours to schedules of senior part-time employees who desire more hours or, secondarily, to creating a new permanent part-time position.

Lastly, the collective agreement also requires the employer to review ongoing patterns of overtime and to meet with the union to discuss the reasons for the overtime.