September 27, 2021
NAV Canada Cancels Medical Certificate Requirement LOU Due to an Increase in Sick Leave Usage
NAV Canada has given notice to CATCA of their intention to discontinue the LOU suspending article 24.03 (b) of our Collective Agreement due to an increase in sick leave usage. With the cancellation of this LOU, the Company’s position is that effective October 6, 2021, all medical absences that exceed ten casual sick days to date will require a medical certificate.
This action is unacceptable to CATCA. We are in the fourth wave of the pandemic, where some provinces are calling for emergency restrictions, and doctors’ offices and medical facilities everywhere continue to need relief. The LOU’s purpose was to precisely address these circumstances and give relief to a medical system that desperately needs help in many jurisdictions. In addition, the LOU was explicitly designed to limit exposure to employees by keeping them out of physicians’ offices or hospitals.
CATCA views the action of cancelling this LOU as a thoughtless and shameful measure. The terms of the Letter of Understanding are as applicable today as they were on the day it was signed. CATCA calls on NAV Canada to rescind this decision and retain the LOU until the health care system is able to accommodate trivial demands like blue forms.
In Solidarity,
Doug Best Scott Loder
President Executive Vice President
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