Toronto’s outside workers vote on contract that trades job security for wage, benefit concessions

Thestar.com
March 6, 2020
David Rider

City of Toronto outside workers voted to ratify a five-year contract that grants job protections to veteran employees in exchange for below-inflation pay hikes and cuts to some benefits.

City council is expected to ratify the agreement at a special council meeting set for Friday morning, CUPE spokesperson Kevin Wilson told the Star Thursday night.

The Star obtained details of the confidential tentative agreement reached Feb. 28 between the city and CUPE Local 416 after marathon bargaining amid the possibility of a work stoppage.

The deal, covering about 5,000 workers including garbage collectors east of Yonge Street, animal control technicians and park maintenance staff, was reached Feb. 28 after marathon bargaining into a period where the workers could have gone on strike or been locked out.

The five-year proposal, replacing a four-year contract, includes:

• Pay hikes averaging 1.3 per cent over five years. That includes 1 per-cent hikes in the first three years, followed in year four by a 1.5-per-cent hike plus midyear .25-per cent bump, and a final year hike of 1.75 per cent.
• Protection from job loss due to contracting out for all workers who have been full-time staff for 15 years or more by the end of the contract, Dec. 31, 2024.
• Cuts to benefits, including a cap on erectile dysfunction medication unless the workers has proof of a “medically supported requirement,” and a limit on claims for orthotics and orthopedic devices for workers’ dependants aged 18 and under.
• Improvements to some benefits, including an increase in funding for psychologist services from $300 per year to $1,000 per year, and increased limits for vision and tests and prostate and ovarian screening.
• The top-up to employment insurance benefits during pregnancy and parental leave rising from 75 per cent to 85 per cent. However, if workers want to spread the amount over an 18-month leave they must spread the same total payout over the longer period.
• Outstanding issues for paramedics, including wages and psychological benefits, will go to arbitration. Paramedics are deemed essential services and not allowed to strike.

Job protection, which city officials dubbed “jobs for life,” was one of the big sticking points.

Members of Local 416 with 15 years’ service at the end of the last contract, Dec. 31, 2019, were protected from layoff if the city privatized services. The city said it has no plans to contract out more services but argued it should phase out the protection to give it “flexibility.”

The union insisted the protection must be renewed so that it applied to a new group of workers, accusing Mayor John Tory’s administration of harbouring secret outsourcing ambitions.

A source familiar with the deal said it would save millions of dollars for the city over the five years, but exact figures won’t be revealed until after a new deal is signed between the city and roughly 20,000 inside workers in CUPE Local 79, who could strike or be locked out as of March 14.

The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the city got “affordable” wage increases and concessions on some benefits the auditor general had deemed ripe for abuse, in exchange for retaining the job protection clause.

Neither Mayor John Tory nor Local 416 would discuss specifics when asked for comment.

“As the mayor said last Saturday, this five-year agreement is timely, affordable and responsible -- it is fair to Toronto residents and Local 416 workers,” said his spokesperson Don Peat.

CUPE spokesperson Matthew Stella said: “Local 416 is not commenting on the details of the agreement until after it is ratified by both parties.”

CUPE said Thursday that talks between negotiators for the city and Local 79 continue at a downtown hotel.