On May 31, 2018, the Canadian Union of Postal workers won a historic pay equity victory on behalf of 7500 rural and suburban mail service carriers (RSMSCs) who are predominantly women. CUPW was represented by Paul Cavalluzzo and Jan Borowy. These are the mail carriers delivering on country roads to rural mail boxes in their right hand drive vehicles or the carriers in the expanding suburbs delivering to community mail boxes.
The predominantly female group of RCSMCs were paid significantly less per hour and their working conditions were inferior to those of regular Letter Carriers. Starting in October 2016, using an innovative expedited pay equity process by agreement of the Union and Canada Post, a pay equity study was completed in a year and the parties moved into mediation. The mediation was not successful and an expedited arbitration hearing was held before arbitrator Maureen Flynn.
In May 2018, Arbitrator Flynn ruled that Canada Post Corporation breached its obligation to ensure equal pay for work of equal value for the RSMCS. This work was found to be of equal value to the work carried out by the male-dominated group of Letter Carriers. Arbitrator Flynn ordered the parties into a 90-day negotiation period to finalize the details of her award, particularly with respect to benefits and pensions. The parties have the option to arbitrate any further specific disputes in the event they cannot agree on the implementation of her award.
A copy of Arbitrator Flynn's award can be found here.