After what has seemed like an eternity to many small businesses in Canada, Canada Post's mail delivery services will resume on Tuesday and mailboxes will be unsealed today.

The over 48 000 mail carriers, sorters, and drivers are slated to return to the job tomorrow after back-to-work legislation was passed in the House of Commons Saturday evening and into law by the Senate Sunday night.

The move has come as a huge relief to small business owners across Canada, who have been struggling to make ends meet throughout the postal dispute.

But with such large volumes of mail having built-up and with a less than favourable labour contract imposed on union employees by the back-to-work bill, the return of mail delivery may have a brief transitional period before it is back to normal.

Workers angered, but professional says CUPW

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has made it clear that they will not take their frustration with the back-to-work bill out on Canada Post customers.

CUPW President Denis Lemelin, when asked about the morale of workers, said of the union's members: "We are professionals." Though angered about how the situation played out, Lemelin said that CUPW will comply with the parameters of the legislation.

Even still, for that first few days at least, we may not see Canada Post's services completely "back to normal."

As CanadaOne had mentioned in a previous article, it is possible that the quality of mail services may be affected by the conditions of back-to-work legislation.

Dr. Tracey Adams, an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario who specializes in workplace sociology, says that the workers will most likely feel disheartened by the nature of the legislation.

"It will be hard for them to work at peak performance when they feel their concerns have not been addressed," she says.

"Job satisfaction wasn't high to begin with, and will probably be worse [with workers legislated back]."

If you have particularly important packages to be mailed within the next few days, you may want to consider forking out the extra money to have it tracked. The details regarding the costs and services for tracking packages can be found on the Canada Post website.

I swear, the cheque's in the mail

The old adage "the cheque's in the mail" will have a little more validity in light of the postal disruption.

As one of our survey respondents pointed out, small businesses may find their ability to get paid still impeded if people with outstanding bills take advantage of the opportunity to delay making payments.

With any luck, this won't be the case for the majority of small businesses. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that cheques and other items might not come flooding in as quickly as you might expect as mail services resume.

At the very least, you can take comfort knowing that the cheque that is "in the mail is" en route, rather than gathering dust somewhere in a warehouse.

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