| What’s
at stake? Key bargaining issues.
#2 – Contract staff
When property assessment was in the Ontario Public Service, there
were rules to prevent abuse of contract workers.
If you worked two years in a contract position, you would be rolled
over into a full-time permanent job.
OPAC wants a free hand with contract employees. It refuses to
bargain rights for 26 per cent of our membership – 26 per cent and
rising.
• OPSEU has proposed job security for contract staff. OPAC says
no.
• OPSEU says contract staff should have a right to a full-time
job after six months on contract. OPAC says no.
If OPAC has its way, you could spend an entire working career,
always on contract, with no job security and reduced benefits.
Are full-timers safe?
The OPAC contract proposal
would let them lay off permanent employees and offer to take them back
on contract.
Nothing in the OPAC proposal would force them to use seniority in
making any of these decisions.
It’s a question of justice
There is work to be done here.
Full-time staff and contract staff are doing the same job – but
under very different conditions. That’s not fair.
And it’s self-interest
Whenever an employer has a
large pool of cheaper workers doing the same job as more highly paid
ones, there is a temptation to get rid of the higher paid people and
hire more of the cheaper ones.
Contract staff don’t have the same benefits, job security and
pension arrangements as full-timers. Even when they get the same pay
rate, they are cheaper for the employer.
A large pool of contract staff is a constant threat to full-timers.
Our clients don’t win in this process.
An insecure workforce, subject to rapid turnover, does not lead to
quality work. It does not foster continuity. And it certainly doesn’t
make for a great place to work.
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