Landmark’ equal pay victory for Canadian postal union

Postal June 6 2018

Deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger has welcomed the news that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has won a landmark judgement which will equalise pay between the country’s rural and urban postal delivery workers.

After a two-year process, the independent arbitrator gave her verdict in June and ruled that Canada Post’s 8,000 rural and suburban mail carriers (RSMCs) do work of equal value to their 34,000 urban letter carriers.

As well as closing the approximately 25 per cent pay gap between rural and urban pay rates, the decision is also important in terms of gender equality – around two-thirds of RSMCs are female, while their urban colleagues are predominately male.

In his response to the ruling, CUPW president Mike Palecek described it as having “finally proven that RMSCs perform work of equal value to letter carriers.

“The days of Canada Post’s exploitation of women are coming to an end. RSMCs deserve equality and we settle for nothing less.”

Commenting on the news, Terry Pullinger said: “I’m sure that all CWU postal members and the wider union will want to congratulate CUPW on their achievement  and on this important step forward in the fight for equal pay for work of equal value.

“In Royal Mail, we have not historically seen this rural/urban pay differential, but there are several equality issues which our union is working with the company to address – including female-fit uniform, appropriate provision of facilities and the right to request a female representative,” he explained.

“For both the CWU and the CUPW, equality is high up on our industrial agendas.”