1. 4/18/2012
2012 Ontario Budget
• In the 2011 Budget, the downsizing of the public
service (OPS and BPS combined) resulted in per
capita program spending at around $8,560, which is
the lowest among the provinces and 11% below the
average program spending across the other nine
provincial governments.
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2. 4/18/2012
2012 Ontario Budget
• Ontario delivers government services with the lowest
number of public service employees at 7.4 per 1,000
of population
• This is lower than any other province or the federal
government.
• But it’s not enough!
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2012 Ontario Budget
• In the 2011 Budget, the government put the
emphasis on deficit reduction, largely on the backs of
the OPS and the Broader Public Service, and this
theme continues in the 2012 Budget.
• Central to the government’s plan to balance the
budget by 2017/2018 is “strong action to manage
current and future compensation costs”.
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3. 4/18/2012
2012 Ontario Budget and its Implications for Bargaining
• The Budget states that to ensure that the fiscal
goals are met, the deficit is eliminated and that
key services such as Health and Education are
preserved, collective bargaining has to be linked to
the sustainability of public services.
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2012 Ontario Budget and its Implications for Bargaining
• The Budget targets three key sets of negotiations in
2012:
– the education sector – Teachers and education
workers
– Ontario Doctors (OMA)
– Ontario Public Service, specifically OPSEU and
AMAPCEO
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4. 4/18/2012
2012 Ontario Budget and its Implications for Bargaining
• While the Budget’s wording is rather vague and
opaque, there are two conclusions we can draw from
it:
– No money will be brought to the table.
– The Budget is based on no increases in
compensation in collective bargaining.
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2012 Ontario Budget and its Implications for Bargaining
• In his budget speech, Duncan stated that the
government respects the collective bargaining
process and its public-sector partners.
• Duncan also stated in his speech that they are
“prepared to propose the necessary administrative
and legislative measures to protect the public from
service disruptions”.
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5. 4/18/2012
2012 Ontario Budget and its Implications for the OPS
• The government repeated its commitment to a
further reduction of the OPS by 1,500 positions
starting April 2012 and to be completed by March
2014.
• 1,000 of these positions have already been identified
• However, the government states that this reduction
of the OPS will not compromise essential front-line
core services.
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2012 Ontario Budget and its Implications for the OPS
• The Budget document is purposely vague
• It is the enabling legislation that will be tabled over
the coming months that will make the government’s
intentions clear
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6. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining - Timelines
• Local Demand Setting Meetings to be completed by May
25
• Results of Local Demand Setting meeting (including
election results) to be submitted to the Regional Offices
by June 4
• Regional Bargaining Conferences on June 9 (Saturday)
• Central Bargaining Conference on June 23 (Saturday)
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OPS Bargaining – Timelines (cont’d)
• Team training – September 10 – 14
• Team begins to formulate bargaining proposals
• Notice to bargain – October 1
• November 5 – bargaining begins!
• While this is happening , OPSEU begins the process of
assembling Essential/Emergency Services (EES)
agreements from previous round of bargaining for follow
up by locals
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7. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Timelines (cont’d)
• If required, teams may present Essential/Emergency
Services (EES) agreements to employer beginning
December 14
• December 31 – Collective Agreement expires
• If no deal by December 31, the Team will review and
present EES proposals to the employer in January 2013
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Ask yourself the following questions:
• What changes to the collective agreement will protect
public services for Ontarians? Our contract should be a
barrier to dismantling public services.
• What are the greatest threats to my job?
• What can we take to the table that will prevent the
employer from dividing and conquering us?
• What action am I willing to take?
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8. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
• This will be a tough round of bargaining
• Every round of bargaining is challenging
• We need to position ourselves so our collective
agreement protects public services
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
People rely on public services. And public services
rely on the people delivering them getting a fair
contract. These are demanding jobs, and …the
people doing them should be treated fairly –
nothing more.”
Toronto Star, February 2, 2012
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9. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security
• Based on our experience working with Article 20 and its
attendant appendices, it has become apparent that the
OPS job security language is not working for our
members.
• As of February 2012, 24.7% of surplussed members have
found permanent assignments. This is an increase from
the 18% placement rate in November 2011, but there is
still plenty of room for improvement.
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
• In addition, unlike previous rounds of layoffs where
the majority of surplussed employees elected to take
their severance packages and leave the OPS, now the
majority of surplussed employees are electing to stay
with the OPS, putting additional pressure on an
already flawed system.
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10. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Improve language regarding contracting out, and the
use of contractors and agency staff
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Revert back to Ministry-driven process, rather than
HROntario
•Experience has shown us that that in the past when
the Ministries were responsible for the redeployment
and displacement of their own employees, we had a
much higher placement rate for surplussed employees
than we do now with the HROntario OPS-wide process.
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11. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Reduce the ability of front-line managers to veto an
employee who is redeploying or displacing into their
work unit
•The employer needs to regain control of the process
•Barring that, the ministries should be held accountable
for the authority which MGS has abdicated
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Replace “qualified” with such wording as “minimally qualified”
or “entry level requirements”
•Article 20.3.1 (c) has the term “qualified” as the requirement for
placement into a regular vacancy and it is the same requirement
for displacement and for the temporary assignments of Article
20.8 and Appendix 40.
•The OPS and GSB have interpreted it to mean “fully”, e.g. no
training, only orientation, required which further restricts our
ability to place surplussed employees.
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12. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Before any pre-notices are issued, solicit early
retirements and voluntary exits from more senior
employees.
•Voluntary layoffs can reduce displacement and
redeployment, which in turn reduces the number of
actual layoffs
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•The current VEO language (Article 20.7) does not
work, largely because Article 20.7.6 disallows anyone
who can qualify for an actuarially unreduced pension to
take a VEO
•Early retirements and VEOs have been used
successfully in other public sector collective
agreements, such as the Central Hospital agreements
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13. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Allow job trades (Article 10.3.2) for Article 20
•Similar to Article 20.7, job trades would allow those
employees who wish to leave the OPS an opportunity
to do so, while reducing the number of redeployments
and displacements
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Surplus Factor 80
•If we are unable to renew Surplus Factor 80, allow
those employees who received their surplus notices
after June 30, 2012 to access Surplus Factor 80 if they
achieve SF80 during their 6 month notice period, even
if their notice period ends after December 31, 2012
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14. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Surplus Factor 80 (cont’d)
•At present, anyone surplussed after June 30th won't be
"laid off" by December 31st
•For example, if you are surplused on October 1, 2012
and reach your SF80 on October 15 or even have
already passed your SF80, you won't be "laid off" by
December 31 and therefore have no access to SF80.
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Strengthen Paragraph 2 of Appendix 40 (which is tied
to Article 19)
•Paragraph 2, which deals with Temporary Vacancies, is
much weaker than Article 20.8
•Ministries “shall” consider, rather than “encouraged”
to consider employees for temporary assignments
•Lower the threshold of 50 layoffs in a program or
service
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15. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Enhance technological change language (Article
20.14.1)
•With any introduction of technological change, the
employer will pay for the training
•The employer to give advance notice of technological
change to allow the parties time to plan training and
up-skilling of employees
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Conditional Assignments
•The Conditional Assignments language in Appendix 40,
Paragraph 7, allows for conditional assignments for 5
months, while Article 20.12 only allows for conditional
assignments in the last month of the notice period
•The Article 20.12 language has resulted in no
placements
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16. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Job Security (cont’d)
•Conditional Assignments (cont’d)
•When the displacement occurred at the end of the 4th
month, immediately followed by the conditional
assignment period it was more meaningful. The
commencement of the conditional assignment period
need not wait until after displacement if we moved
displacement back to the second last week of the
notice period, as it was in the early 1990s.
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement
• Strengthen Training & Development language
(Appendix UN3, Appendix COR6)
• If there are no dollars attached to training &
development, the language is not helpful to our
members
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17. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement (cont’d)
•Work Arrangements
•Workload
– Strengthen Appendix 30 language
•Flexible Hours of Work
– Enhance and strengthen Appendix 42
– Put template in agreement
– Remove employer’s ability to unilaterally cancel such
agreements
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement
•Work Arrangements (cont’d)
•Tele-work
– MGS is telling the ministries that Telework
agreements require the agreement of the union
(like CWWs). However, there is no CA language.
– Incorporate language in agreement that tele-work
agreements expire with “No Board” report
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18. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement (cont’d)
•Students
•The government has always exempted itself from providing
certain provisions of the Employment Standards Act to direct
government employees, including percent in lieu of vacation and
holidays.
•For most employees, this does not matter as the collective
agreement is superior to the ESA, but in the 2008 round of
bargaining, the employer informed OPSEU that it was ending its
long-standing practice of paying percent in lieu of holiday and
vacation pay to students.
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement (cont’d)
•Students (cont’d)
•It is shameful that an employer that prides itself on being an
“employer of choice” should treat its student employees in such
a shabby fashion.
•Therefore, we are proposing the following amendments:
– % in lieu of vacation and holidays
– Supply uniforms on same basis as permanent staff
– Students to be paid at same rate of pay as regular staff
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19. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement (cont’d)
•Union Time
•Add leave for miscellaneous reasons
•Allow MERC chairs to use Article 23.9 paid time off for
MERC business
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Other provisions of the Collective Agreement (cont’d)
•Mass Centralized Recruitment (Appendix 39)
•Define the 12 month period in paragraph (a) as
beginning the closing date of the job posting
•The employer’s position is that the 12 month period
starts at the assignment date of the last successful
applicant in the first round – this is too confusing!
•The closing date of the job posting is more easily
defined
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20. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety
Precautionary Principle
• A commitment that the employer not wait for
scientific certainty before taking preventative action
to address issues that cause psychological or physical
harm to workers
• Or even more simply, to err on the side of caution
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety (cont’d)
Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) prevention
> Employer in consultation with the joint health and
safety committee and/or health and safety
representative to develop a program and measures
and procedures to prevent musculoskeletal injuries
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21. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety (cont’d)
Bullying and Harassment
> That the employer prevent bullying and harassment in
the workplace
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety (cont’d)
•Recognition and Prevention of Psychosocial Hazards
•Employer to work with Joint H & S Committees and
H & S Representatives to prevent mental distress from
work factors
•A commitment to recognize and prevent aspects of
work that cause physical or mental harm to workers
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22. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety (cont’d)
•Scent Awareness Policies
•The employer, in consultation with Joint H & S
Committees or H & S representatives, shall develop
awareness policies regarding fragrances and other
scented products in the workplace
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OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety (cont’d)
• Technical Advice to Joint Health and Safety Committees
and health and safety representatives
• Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers
(OHCOW) is a recognized and competent source for
expert advice on technical issues such as ergonomics or
occupational hygiene and is useful to employers,
workers, JHSCs and health and safety representatives
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23. 4/18/2012
OPS Bargaining – Suggested Demands for Bargaining
Health & Safety (cont’d)
Workers Health and Safety Training
• To be provide by the Worker Health & Safety Centre
(WHSC)
• WHSC is the agreed upon provider of health and
safety training for the OPS
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