Thousands of Canada Post workers are returning to work on Tuesday, but the postal service is warning of delays as it gradually works through the mountain of backlog after a month-long strike.
Postal operations across the country were set to resume at 8 a.m. local time on Tuesday.
The Crown corporation said in a statement on Monday that employees will deliver mail and parcels that were held back due to the strike “on a first-in, first-out basis.”
Canada Post will start accepting new commercial mail on Thursday and new international mail on Dec. 23.
“Canadians should expect delivery delays through the remainder of 2024 and into January 2025,” the company said.
“With a large, integrated network of processing plants, depots and post offices, stabilizing operations will take time and the company asks Canadians for their patience.”
The resumption in services comes after the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), upon a request from the Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, ordered workers to get back to work.
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In its ruling on Sunday, the federal labour relations board determined that Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers were unlikely to reach a deal by the end of the year.
CUPW called the decision “disappointing,” and is challenging the government intervention to end the strike.
For now, union workers are being told to return to their regularly scheduled shifts.
“Legal strike action ends at 8:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, but the fight goes on,” CUPW said.
Under the CIRB order, the terms of the existing collective agreements will be extended until May 2025. Canada Post will also offer a wage increase of five per cent for employees, which was proposed in the company’s last offer.
The wage hike will be retroactive to the day after each collective agreement expired, which was Dec. 31, 2023, for rural and suburban mail carriers (RSMC) unit and Jan. 31, 2024 for the urban unit.
In a post on X Monday morning, MacKinnon said an Industrial Inquiry Commission will review the structural issues of the labour dispute and will issue a report on May 15, which “will serve as a solid basis for both parties to negotiate their collective agreements.”
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