In conjunction with the recent changes to Nav’s fatigue program, Nav Canada and CATCA have agreed to amend a previous letter of understanding defining a “day of rest”. The previous definition applied to our collective agreement was as follows:
An employee who has worked in a control position for nine (9) consecutive days must take a full calendar day off (day of rest). For clarity, no work shall be scheduled between 00:00 and 23:59 on the day of rest.
Going forward, that definition will be supplemented by the following:
An employee may, on a voluntary basis, elect to apply 36 hours of rest time between shifts if the rest period for a calendar day off exceeds 36 hours. This shall satisfy the requirement to provide a day of rest.
In practical terms, what this means for CATCA employees is that either of the above conditions satisfies the requirement for a “day of rest” following the limits to work set forth in article 20.04 of our collective agreement. Note that our collective agreement specifies that the maximum days of work shall be 9. This is different from Nav’s fatigue rules. Nav Canada’s fatigue rules do not amend our collective agreement. However, Nav Canada has committed to following the 8-day limit for all purposes as part of the fatigue program. The question of whether working a 9th day is “permissible” has arisen several times since the latest fatigue limit amendments. While working a 9th day is not a violation of our collective agreement, it is contrary to the fatigue limits and should not occur. Nav Canada should not schedule or assign overtime, nor should shift exchanges occur.
For consistency of application, CATCA’s position is that members shall respect the 8-day limit prescribed in the fatigue program consistent with the definitions for a “day of rest” above.
In solidarity,
Nick von Schoenberg
President
Scott Loder
Executive Vice President