Canada Post says operations will resume on Tuesday after the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered a return to work.
The company said it has agreed with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to implement a five per cent wage increase retroactive to the day after the collective agreements expired.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon on Friday directed the CIRB to order the 55,000 picketing employees back to work if a deal wasn’t doable before the end of the year.
Canada Post says the board determined negotiations between the Crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are at an impasse after two days of hearings over the weekend.
It says union members have been ordered back to work under their existing contracts, which have been extended until May to allow the bargaining process to resume.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon announces he’s asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order operations at Canada Post to resume if it agrees that the contract dispute is at an impasse. MacKinnon also says he is tapping an independent commissioner to examine the structure of the corporation, along with the collective agreement, and produce recommendations ‘on the way forward.’
In an interview with CBC News Network on Monday, a Canada Post spokesperson warned it will take time to start clearing the backlog of packages and letters that have been stuck in the system since workers walked off the job on Nov. 15. To help with the workload, the company won’t be accepting new mail on Tuesday.
“We’re going from a cold start to firing everything back up again, so it’s going to take a bit of time,” Jon Hamilton said.
“But as soon as we can, we’re going to share information so people can understand what we can provide in the next few weeks in the lead-up to Christmas and afterwards.”
On Monday, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said it believes the order forcing employees back to work is “unlawful.” A statement said a “constitutional challenge to this process” is scheduled for mid-January.
“Our fight for justice is far from over,” it read.
Federal mediation was put on hold Nov. 27 after mediators concluded that the sides were too far apart.
Business groups had been calling on the government to intervene as companies and individuals scrambled to find alternative modes of delivery with the holiday shopping season in full swing.
