Enhanced
Disability Management: More Invasive, More Intrusive, and More Insidious
Many Canada Post employees have now become aware of
the Corporation’s Enhanced Disability Management program. This
new program has recently been rolled out in the Pacific Region, and
represents a disturbing threat to the privacy rights of CUPW members. In
the January/February 2005 edition of Performance magazine, Canada
Post extols the virtues of its new program, featuring glowing,
hyperbolic testimonials from various corporate talking heads who each
assert that the program will “help sick and injured workers
get the care that they need”.
Despite Canada Post’s claims, most Canada Post
employees rely on the ability of their own physicians to provide them
with the care that they need. CUPW believes that the Enhanced
Disability Management program represents an insidious,
unprecedented attack on the privacy rights of CUPW members.
When unable to attend work
because of illness or injury, CUPW members are frequently pressured by
their supervisors to return to work or perform modified duties. Under
the Enhanced Disability Management program, Medisys nurses
are now entering into the fray by contacting employees directly by phone
or in person, ostensibly for the purpose of “assisting” in
their rehabilitation. That “assistance” entails discussing an
employee’s medical status. The effect of the Enhanced Disability
Management program will be to create additional pressure for sick,
disabled, and partially disabled employees to either return to work or
return to full duties.
What
is Medisys?
For some employees, the relationship between Medisys
and Canada Post is unclear. According to its own definition, Medisys
is a private healthcare management company that is under contract to
Canada Post for the purpose of providing “wellness” and “disability
management services”. While there can be little debate that Medisys
attempts to manage disabilities, it is perhaps more accurate to describe
Medisys as a company that is employed by Canada Post to represent
its corporate interests with respect to CUPW members who become ill or
injured. While Performance magazine casts Medisys
nurses in the role of Florence Nightingale, Medisys nurses
are employed to represent management’s interests.
 The Medisys mantra frequently appears
in the form letters that are generated from its office in the VMPP: “Early
intervention in the management of an absence contributes positively to
recovery”. That phrase may have different meanings depending on
one’s perspective, but in the Union’s view, the Enhanced
Disability Management program simply dovetails into Canada Post’s
well-documented history of harassing employees who have had the
misfortune of suffering from illness or injury. The Corporation’s
longstanding attendance management program is known for its aggressive
harassment of employees who have had the misfortune of becoming ill or
injured. Hundreds of Canada Post employees in Vancouver have been
subjected to attendance interviews, which are frequently followed up by
attendance letters that contain ubiquitous threats of discharge. The new
program goes further because
Medisys nurses are now under direction to further buttress the
attendance management program by contacting disabled employees. One of
the most offensive and disturbing aspects of the new program is the
notion that a Canada Post employed nurse would have the audacity to
contact a disabled employee when that employee is under the medical
supervision of his/her personal physician.
CUPW
Members Have a Right to Privacy!
There is absolutely no obligation for any employee to
discuss his/her medical condition with a Medisys
nurse or any other agent of the Corporation. The Corporation may not
compromise its employees’ privacy rights by employing private Medisys nurses to solicit confidential medical information from sick
and injured CUPW members either by phone or in person. There is no
obligation to accept phone calls from Medisys nurses, nor can
CUPW members be compelled to answer their questions if confronted in
person in the workplace.
Confidential
Medical Information is Limited in Scope
Depending on the circumstances,
Canada Post has a right to receive certain confidential medical
information regarding its employees. That medical information may be
requested in writing from an employee’s physician, and when required,
it is provided in writing directly to the Corporation’s medical
consultant. Confidential medical information is never provided to
supervisors, as the nature of that medical information requires that it
be treated with strict confidentiality (The only information that is to
be subsequently provided to a supervisor or superintendent is a
description of an employee’s physical limitations and restrictions)
However, the scope of medical information that may be requested from an
employee’s physician is generally restricted to an employee’s
specific illness or injury.
The Disability Enhancement
Program features a revised medical questionnaire (Acquisition of
Medical Information form) that infringes on employees’ privacy rights
by seeking information that goes outside the scope of that to which the
Corporation and/or Medisys is entitled; the new form requests information regarding an
employee’s history of injury and/or disease, prior history of similar
medical condition(s), symptoms, specific physical findings, diagnosis,
proposed treatment program(s) and details relating to specialist
referrals.
To deal with these issues, the
Union has filed National Policy Grievance N00-03-00016. At a preliminary
meeting between the Union and Canada Post in late March, the
Corporation’s claimed it was not on a fishing expedition, and assured
the Union that the new Medisys forms would be corrected. However,
at the time of this writing, Medisys continues to send out the
same Acquisition of Medical Information forms that contributed to the
submission of the grievance.
Do
Not Consent to Release Medical Information To Medisys
The new Acquisition of Medical Information form
contains a space for an employee to give his/her consent for the release
of the medical information sought by Medisys. In the 1980s,
Canada Post used to threaten employees with discharge for failing or
refusing to sign similar medical release forms. Canada Post backed away
from that approach after complaints were submitted to the federal
privacy commission. While Medisys continues to enclose
authorization forms with its correspondence, there is no requirement to
sign such documents. It is one thing for an employee to provide a
written response to a specific medical enquiry, but it quite another to
give Canada Post and/or Medisys carte blanche access to
your medical records.
There is no requirement or obligation for an employee
to give his/her consent for the release of medical information to Medisys,
nor should any employee hand over the keys to his/her medical records to
an agent of the Canada Post Corporation.
A Culture Of Conflict With Medisys
CUPW has long been concerned with the role of Medisys
in Canada Post’s labour relations. There have been many documented
cases where the opinion of Canada Post’s medical consultant has
contradicted the medical opinion of an employee’s own physician.
Unfortunately, Canada Post will accept the opinions of its medical
consultant over the opinion of an employee’s own physician. These
types of disputes frequently end up at arbitration or at the WCB.
In 2003, a VMPP despatcher was suspended from duty
after a #1 shift VMPP superintendent claimed he had seen him engaging in
wrestling activities while on a WCB approved program of modified duties.
Prior to his discharge, Dr. Douglas Hamm, the Corporation’s medical
consultant, wrote to the grievor’s physician and quoted the
second-hand observations of the superintendent as if those observations
were fact. Although the grievor’s physician indicated his concerns
with the facts as presented by Dr. Hamm, the grievor was fired from
Canada Post on the grounds of fraud. That discharge led to a prolonged
arbitration hearing in which it was determined that the
superintendent’s observations were mistaken. Ultimately, the grievor
was cleared of any wrong doing and reinstated with all lost wages and
benefits.
Another notable dispute occurred in late 2003 when
the parties went to arbitration after Canada Post refused to allow a
VMPP postal clerk return to work following a serious motor vehicle
accident. Although the grievor’s physician and two medical specialists
confirmed her ability to return to work, Canada Post’s medical
consultant Dr. Douglas Hamm rejected those opinions (even though he had
never met the grievor). It was particularly interesting in that case
that Dr. Hamm had solicited the opinion of an independent specialist,
but rejected the findings of that independent specialist’s report even
though it was found that the grievor was capable of returning to work!
Despite Dr. Hamm’s opinion, the Union was successful at arbitration,
and the grievor was reimbursed for all lost wages and benefits.
In 2001, a VPDC postal clerk was
fired from Canada Post after failing to report for work in the face of
numerous threats of discharge. In that case, Canada Post again relied on
the opinion of Dr. Hamm, who had opined that the grievor could work even
though her physician provided a series of medical certificates to the
contrary. At the grievor’s arbitration, Canada Post’s legal counsel
attempted to have the evidence of the grievor’s medical specialist
barred from the hearing. However, a preliminary arbitral ruling found
the specialist’s medical evidence to be admissible. As a result of
that ruling, Dr. Hamm’s medical opinion stood to be severely
challenged by the first-hand evidence of a specialist who had actually
enjoyed the benefit of the grievor’s acquaintance. However, the
writing was on the wall following the preliminary ruling and the
Corporation reinstated the grievor without any loss of wages or
benefits.
These are but a few examples of the nature of Medisys’
relationship with Canada Post. Clearly, that relationship should be of
concern to all CUPW members. CUPW members are advised not to engage in
any discussions with Medisys nurses. If there are questions to be
answered, those questions can be set out in writing for the
consideration of an employee’s personal physician. If confronted by a
nurse on the work floor, please obtain the assistance of a shop steward.
If you are sent a Medisys Acquisition of
Medical Information form, please contact our local office immediately.
It is hoped that this bulletin has been helpful in
explaining some of the issues involved with the Enhanced Disability
Management program.
More information regarding National Policy Grievance
N00-03-00016 will be published in the near future. For additional
information, please do not hesitate to speak with a shop steward or with
any of the officers in our local office.
In Solidarity,
Ken Mooney
ALREADY
HAVE MY
OWN DOCTOR…
BACK |