Labour lawyer calls hefty city councillor severances a ‘scam’

citynews.ca
Nov. 12, 2014
By Tracy Tong

A prominent labour employment lawyer is calling hefty severances for nine outgoing Toronto city councillors a “scam” and says they aren’t legally entitled to a penny.

Attorney Howard Levitt says by law employees are only entitled to severance if they are terminated without reason.

All Toronto city councillors receive one month of pay for every year of service up to a maximum of 12 years, even if they are voted out of office or resign to pursue other opportunities.

That was the case with Coun. Adam Vaughan who left his council seat at city hall to successfully run for federal politics. Vaughan admits he received around $70,000 severance before taxes and other fees.

Levitt says neither Vauhgan, or any other city councillor, should receive severance.

The tally for all out-going councillors is in the range of half-a-million dollars.

“If you are hired for term as these people are, you don’t get severance pay at the end of the term.”

“It’s so-called severance pay,” he added. “It’s not severance pay at all and they should not have a whiff of entitlement to a single penny.”

Vaughan disagrees. He says Toronto city councillors agreed to the lowest salaries among their peers in the GTA, and compensated with healthy severance packages to “make the transition out of politics possible.”

“At the end of the day politicians still have families to raise, still have mortgagees to meet and politics can end very quickly for some people,” he said.

“When I left city hall I cut my salary,” he added. “The severance package was enough, so I took the severance package. And if I didn’t win the election that severance package would have paid my mortgage and made sure my kids got fed on the way to school.”

Doug Ford, who lost his bid for mayor, said he’s eligible for around $35,000, but will donate the money to charity.

“A lot of these large payments I just don’t agree with it,” Ford said.

“A lot of councillors left on their own accord and when you leave a job you don’t necessarily get a massive severance. Some of them are over $100,000. Those are staggering numbers…You don’t get that in other sectors. It just comes out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”

Levitt says the severance packages are a prime example of the gravy train Mayor Ford vowed to stop.

"I consider it an absolute scandal,” he said. “It’s something they obviously voted for themselves, which creates their own legal entitlement…If you run for office and get voted out, that’s the chance you took.”

“It’s certainly something for John Tory to look at.”