Posts Tagged ‘Sick Pay benefits Toronto’
Toronto to Unions: 'Concede as we say, not as we do'
CUPE 416 or 79 Worker:
- Receives 18 paid sick days per year. Can carry unused sick days over into the next year and is able to ‘bank’ a total of six months paid sick leave.
- Currently is entitled to receive payment for 50% of unused paid sick leave at the end of their employment with the City, up to three months pay.
- Can be absent or sick without excuse or mention all but four days per month (two days of city council, one day of community council, one day of committee). Attendance is only accounted for on those four days.
- Is only accountable for absences in the four situations mentioned above, and can only be removed if they miss a full three months, and do not have the permission of their peers not to be present for longer than three full months. Receives full salary regardless of attendance.
- Upon defeat or retirement a Councillor is entitled to a ’severance’ equal to one month pay for each year served.
City Negotiators Need to Ask ‘What Would Arbitration Do?’
Toronto’s municipal workers are on the picket line because they refused to accept major concessions from the City of Toronto. That is a completely documented, uncontroversial fact. The City would not strike a deal that did not include some pretty fundamental changes to the employment conditions of workers, and workers didn’t go for it.
There are two possible outcomes for a strike – an agreement between the Unions and the City, ratified by a vote of workers, or ‘back to work legislation’ from Queen’s Park. The Unions have been clear they will never accept the City’s current demands, their workers are behind them overwhelmingly. Don’t count on a negotiated settlement. Last time there was a strike of municipal workers it took sixteen days and a papal visit to pressure Queen’s Park into acting to send workers back. Back to work legislation results in ‘binding arbitration’ where an Arbitrator from the Ministry of Labour strikes the collective agreement and it is essentially imposed on both sides.
It is well documented that Arbitrators like workers, and are generally sympathetic to their positions. In this case, I would be prepared to bet almost anything that arbitration will not result in the City getting the a fundamental shift in how workers collect sick leave or their ability to cash it out.
This strike will be essentially about nothing, because it will very likely end with a position extremely close to the Unions, after the Province eventually steps in to bring workers back. That will demonstrate that the City was wrong to box workers into a legal strike position and should have either negotiated a deal or removed the controversial aspects of their concessions from this round.
Until then, parents with small children are out of luck for daycare, summer camp, swimming lessons and other important aspects of childhood. Residents are without garbage pick up, community centres, clean streets and essentially a functioning municipal government.
Torontonians should be frustrated, but they need to direct their frustration at their municipal leaders. Over a hundred concessions is never a reasonable expectation, and when the arbitrator is named once back to work legislation is introduced and passed probably weeks from now, they will likely agree.
5 Comments »It’s Official CUPE 416 and 79 Are On Strike
Toronto’s municipal workers walked off the job today after the City and union representatives failed to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.
An agreement is being upheld by the City’s insistence to address the issue of sick pay benefits in this round of negotiation, something the unions have flatly refused and a disagreement over wage increases.
Residents of Toronto need to know that their Councillors were all given a 2.5% pay increase this year, and the Mayor refused to allow a motion to rescind the increase. Residents should know that four of the seven members of the the Labour Relations Committee – representing the City at the bargaining table took the increase. Union officials have suggested they are looking for an increase in the neighbourhood of 3%.
The City is refusing to budge on the ‘bankability’ of sick pay benefits. I recognize their point that this is a fairly unique thing, but each and every Councillor who is in fact hired for a contract receives severance at the rate of one month for every year served and six of seven members of the City’s Labour Relations Committee are already entitled to a full years pay at retirement (and growing).
Torontonians have been subjected to a strike by a fumbling Council that has once again missed the boat on a major issue and left residents to suffer. The deal Councillors wrote for themselves is far better than what workers are asking for, and let’s face it, City workers work a hell of a lot harder and do a lot more good than the majority of the folks who’ve turned being a Councillor from being a public service into a career choice.
The City missed an opportunity to pull back from the brinkmanship and give the unions an out. I get that the City doesn’t want to budge on the issue of sick leave benefits, but forcing a strike over this isn’t going to get them anywhere. No Arbitrator in the world is going to take this benefit away on their behalf and their only hope of changing it is negotiation.
What’s clear is this round of talks won’t see a resolution, arbitration won’t solve this, and they will have to wait for another collective agreement to re-open this file anyways. At the end of the day, we’ll see a strike, and the sick pay issue will see the status quo prevail for another three years anyways.
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