The union representing Canada Post employees issued 72-hour strike notice yesterday. As a result, there may be a disruption in postal services across Canada starting early next week. The CBC has advised us on some options aimed at making sure freelance contributors who currently receive their paycheques in the mail can make alternate arrangements.

The options, explained below, include arranging for direct deposit, having cheques sent to a CBC location of the freelancer’s choice, or having a cheque couriered to them at their own expense. 

If you have any questions, please direct them to Freelance Branch President Don Genova at freelance@cmg.ca.

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Note to Freelance Contributors from CBC/Radio-Canada

Re: Postal labour dispute

In the event of a Canada Post work stoppage, there are a few options you should be aware of:

• Option 1 - The fastest and easiest way for you to make sure you get your payments on time is to opt for direct deposit (EFT) as a postal strike will have no impact on these payments. We therefore strongly encourage you to fill in this form and send a scanned version of it along with a scanned void cheque via email to eft-tef@cbc.ca as soon as possible so we can enter your banking information in our payroll system. You will then start receiving your payments via direct deposit. To have direct deposit for the pay dated July 7^th, information needs to be sent to the CBC/Radio-Canada Shared Services Centre (SSC) by end of day Friday, June 24^th.

 

• Option 2 - Should you choose not to enroll in direct deposit, all cheques will be kept at the SSC office and if requested by you, it can be sent to the CBC/Radio-Canada office nearest to your home for pickup. For this option, please request that a cheque be sent to you via the nearest CBC/Radio-Canada office through the following email eft-ef@cbc.ca. Email confirmation will be provided to you.

 

• Option 3 - If you would like your cheque to be delivered to your home via a courier service, you will be able to request this but the courier costs will not be covered by CBC/Radio-Canada. These cheques will be sent on a “cash on delivery (COD)” basis. For this option, please request that a cheque be sent to your home by courier through the following email eft-tef@cbc.ca. Email confirmation will be provided to you.

 

Following the Canada Post service disruption, any cheques sent to a CBC/Radio-Canada office that remain unclaimed will be mailed to your home address.

Pay stubs for those of you who have opted for direct deposit will be kept at the SSC office from July 1^st until Canada Post has settled with its employees, at which time all of the pay stubs will be mailed to your home address.

Although these measures may appear to be unnecessary given that a strike has not been called, the CBC/Radio-Canada’s payroll services are taking these pro-active steps to avoid any delays in payments to performers and freelancers who have provided services to CBC/Radio-Canada. If you have any questions, please contact the CBC/Radio-Canada Shared Services Centre at 1-866-999-7888 or by e-mail at shared.services@cbc.ca.