A showdown is shaping up between the city and its workers, with Toronto’s top bureaucrat confirming that layoffs are on the way and the city charging that its largest union is bargaining in bad faith. It’s no secret that Toronto’s cost-cutting mayor believes the city has too many workers. Rob Ford repeatedly has singled out Toronto’s 53,000 employees as the prime ingredient in the gravy he pledged to stop flowing while on the campaign trail. And the fight with employees is escalating before the existing labour contract expires at the end of the year.
The first step in reducing the city’s head count – a voluntary exit offer expected to cut 700 jobs – has come up short, removing just 230 employees from the payroll and setting the stage for more job cuts.
City manager Joseph Pennachetti confirmed Thursday that is exactly what will happen.
“There will be layoffs,” he said. He would not give a target number, saying those details will come on Nov. 28 when the city unveils its proposed budget for next year.
“We have a plan that you will see at the end of the month on that. It’s a combination of vacancies and layoffs,” Mr. Pennachetti told reporters. “I can’t get more specific than that.”
Although 1,140 eligible city staff applied for the program, Mr. Pennachetti said the low numbers approved for the voluntary separation program reflect the fact that more than one-third of the employees who applied work in legislated or cost-shared programs – jobs that could not be eliminated. As well, budget-cutting efforts this summer aimed at reducing city programs did not go as deep as expected, requiring the city to maintain staffing levels in the areas that were spared, he said.
“I was probably optimistic on the 700.” Mr. Pennachetti said about the target he released in September for the buyout program. Under that scenario, the program was expected to cost the city $41-million this year and result in long-term annual savings of $59-million.
The program is now expected to cost about $13-million and result in $20-million in annual savings.
The talk of layoffs comes as the city and its unions are about to embark on a round of contract negotiations and labour leaders are raising the prospect of a lockout and a prolonged disruption of services.
The city turned up the heat on those negotiations, announcing Thursday that it has filed a complaint of unfair labour practice against the local that represents about 22,000 inside workers with the Ontario Labour Relations Board. The city also has written to the Ontario Ministry of Labour requesting that a conciliator be appointed.
The city says it met with Local 79 on Oct. 17, but the local was unwilling to begin bargaining and continues to be unwilling to do so. Preliminary discussions have taken place with the local that represents the city’s outside workers.
Local 79, which is in the midst of a change in leadership, countered by calling the complaint “frivolous” and demanding that the city provide more details on its projected funding gap for next year.
Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a member of the city’s employee and labour relations committee and a member of Mr. Ford’s inner circle, dismissed this demand, saying it is time for the union to come to the table and noting the outgoing president, who gives up her post at the end of the year, has booked vacation in December.
“We waited over a month and Local 79 has not come to the table,” Councillor Minnan-Wong said. “We are frustrated by that, quite frankly. We would like to start the bargaining process. This is a very serious matter.”
The councillor said the labour board could order the union to the table.
A source within the union called the demand by the city to negotiate at this point “highly irregular,” given the existing contract expires at the end of December. Plans by the local president to take a week off are not relevant to the negotiations, the source said.
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Source: Globe&Mail
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