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  • Sufficient staffing levels at all times to ensure that public service can be maintained and that no worker carries an excessive workload.
  • Replace workers on vacation or any other leave.
  • Stop attrition – fill jobs when people retire or quit.
  • Reduce regular working hours for full-time employees without loss in pay.
  • Fair and equal treatment of part-time and casual workers; convert part-time and casual jobs to full-time, permanent jobs.
  • More rest periods; more vacation.
  • No extra duties without the union’s consent.
  • Effective workplace training programs to help workers meet changing job requirements; ensure full coverage while on training.
  • No new technologies to speed up work demands.
  • Compensation for overwork and related problems; pay for overtime and compensate in time off, child care allowances, better sick leave provisions, workers’ compensation for stress and other overwork-related problems.
  • Better provisions to allow workers to balance the increased demands of work and family including more time off for family and personal responsibilities; access to child care and elder care facilities and programs; longer paid parental leaves.
  • Reasonable work schedules that deal with the problem of long, exhausting and potentially dangerous work shifts.
  • Measures to make jobs physically less demanding and dangerous.
  • Effective procedures to address workload complaints including the right to grieve workload, to make health and safety complaints about overwork, and to refuse excessive work.
  • Workplace committees with authority to investigate workload problems and fix them.

Remember: don’t let workload divide us

Overwork can lead to increased tensions and harassment among members. So don’t let employers divide us. Make sure that your strategy reaches out to and addresses the problems of all members of your local. Include women, workers of colour, Aboriginal workers, workers with disabilities, gay, lesbian and transgendered workers, older and younger members, and workers with children or special responsibility for others.

Let’s encourage a workplace culture where we brag about how much time we spend with friends and family.

Let’s show how proud we are to be active in our communities, rather than how many extra hours we spend at work.