Volume 9, Issue 3 • October 21, 2009
MPAC begins pre-bargaining posturing by
imposing a Hiring Freeze
On Dec. 31, 2009, MPAC’s
collective agreement with OPSEU will expire.
On Sept. 28, 2009, MPAC CEO
Carl Isenburg told managers he was imposing a hiring freeze from now to the
end of 2010.
“You know you’re going into
bargaining when the employer starts crying poor,” says Ivan Herrington,
elected chair of the OPSEU bargaining team for MPAC. “This hiring freeze has
little, if anything, to do with MPAC’s financial situation and everything to
do with the fact that we’re heading to the negotiating table.”
The hiring freeze, detailed in
the memo re-printed here, has not been formally announced to members of the
OPSEU bargaining unit. It was never shared with the union members on the
Union-Management Committee.
“This lack of openness and
transparency on the part of MPAC has only served to crank up the rumour mill
and sow fear in the workplace,” Herrington said today. “It’s an uncalled-for
distraction that interferes with our ability to do our jobs. It just hurts
overall morale in the workplace.
“It will be interesting to see
what other surprises MPAC has in store as we head into bargaining.”
|
September 28, 2009
To: EMG
From: Carl
Isenburg
Subject: Temporary
Hiring Freeze
As we enter the
fourth quarter of the business cycle, we are closely monitoring
department and corporate spending. Preliminary year-end projections
suggest there may be an overall funding pressure. To ensure our
resources are effectively managed I am implementing a temporary
freeze on all hiring activity, effective immediately, for the
remainder of 2009 and 2010 fiscal year.
The hiring freeze
applies to temporary and full time recruitment, including:
· Filling
temporary and regular full-time vacancies;
· Filling
acting and backfill assignments; and
·
Extensions to acting and backfill assignments.
All competitions
that are currently in progress are canceled, unless an offer of
employment has already been extended to a candidate.
If you have a
specific hiring priority that carries a risk or liability problem
for the Corporation, you may submit a request for approval to
proceed, through the Vice-President, Corporate and Human Resources,
for my consideration.
I appreciate this
hiring freeze will create pressure on each of your operations. I
thank you for your collective cooperation as we navigate through the
financial pressures through to year-end.
Yours truly,
“Originally Signed
by”
Carl Isenburg
|
According to the Isenburg memo,
the hiring freeze means any permanent vacancy will not be filled. It appears
as well that all contract (“temporary”) positions will not be filled once
those contracts expire. Acting and backfill assignments will not be
extended.
MPAC has already taken down job
postings and has cancelled all job competitions except where a job offer has
already been made.
The hiring freeze creates “a
chain reaction of bad news,” said Ivan Herrington.
“Obviously the freeze means
missed opportunities for people who have been waiting to take the next step
in their career,” he said, “but the impact of the freeze goes further.
“It means greater workloads for
those of us on the frontlines and it means municipalities’ tax revenues will
suffer because we don’t have the people we need to update the assessment
rolls.”
And the impacts of the freeze
won’t just be temporary, Herrington added.
“In addition to the short-term
effects, a hiring freeze wreaks havoc with succession planning. That’s
because it sends a message to young people who have just graduated from a
property assessment program that they can’t pursue their career goals in
Ontario, at least not right now.
“If they move to B.C. or
Alberta or anywhere else, we lose a promising, Ontario-educated worker who
could have made a career right here at home,” says Herrington. “That’s a
permanent loss. It’s unfortunate to say the least.”
The most outrageous aspect of
the hiring freeze is the way it treats contract employees, Herrington said.
“Many people have been on and
off contracts, in some cases for several years,” he said. “Many have been
abused by our ‘break-in-service’ language.
“In many cases they’ve
dedicated years to this organization in hopes of making a career in property
assessment. MPAC just doesn’t seem to care.
“It makes me sick to my
stomach.”
The OPSEU bargaining team will
not be distracted by employer “stunts” during bargaining, he added.
“Our mandate comes from our
members,” he said. “That’s who we will be listening to.”
Where’d the money go?
There is no external reason why
MPAC should be having financial problems – if it does – so those problems
must be internal.
-
MPAC’s expenditures on
consultants (like KPMG) over the last several years have been a huge
waste and an embarrassment to boot. You know it’s bad when the Globe and
Mail reports that MPAC broke its own rules around contracts for
consultants.
-
The Integrated Property
System has been a money pit for years, more famous for cost overruns
and missed deadlines than for improving service to stakeholders.
-
MPAC has also hired
more human resources staff. And just this week – What hiring
freeze? – MPAC posted a new position for a Sales Account Manager.
-
Management
globe-trotting to places like China may not give the return on
investment that some managers believe.
“Some things MPAC does, like
pizza parties and staff getaways, are not a problem in themselves and could
even be good for morale,” says Ivan Herrington. “But something is very wrong
if they are being paid for with job losses.”
The union has asked MPAC for
full disclosure of all monies spent on consultants over the last four years.
“Top 90” in the GTA? Huh?
MPAC staff may have been
surprised this past weekend to learn that MPAC has been named one of the Top
90 employers in the Greater Toronto Area. The recognition comes from
“Canada’s Top 100 Employers,” a national competition. While MPAC was not
named a Top 100 employer for Canada, the Top-90-in-the-GTA is still a big
deal. So how did MPAC, which is known for unfair hiring practices (and now,
a hiring freeze, which is the opposite of recruitment), win this honour?
A quick look at the web (see
http://www.eluta.ca/top-employer-municipal-property-assessment ) reveals
the answer.
First, it’s partly based on
wrong information.
MPAC appears to have given the
folks at The Top 100 Employers the impression that all MPAC staff have
post-retirement benefits until they die. Some do, but a significant number
do not. Employees hired on or after Dec. 31, 1998 do not have
post-retirement benefits past the age of 65.
The second reason for MPAC’s
success? Collective bargaining with OPSEU.
Things like benefits, pensions, and vacation time – all
listed on the web site as part of MPAC’s success as an employer – are all
union-negotiated. Clearly this sends a message: If MPAC wants to be a Top
100 employer in Canada, the bargaining table is the place to make it happen.
Bargaining update
Collective agreement
expires Dec. 31, 2009
The OPSEU pre-bargaining
conference for members at MPAC took place on Sept. 19, 2009, with the main
event being election of the bargaining team. Members chose Ivan
Herrington, Gary Cooper, Everett Kelly, David Lynch, and Bill Robertson
to represent them. Other key events in the bargaining schedule:
-
Local demand-setting.
Locals have been completing the local demand-setting survey and
holding local demand-setting meetings this month. The deadline to have
local demands in to the bargaining team is this Friday, Oct. 23.
-
Final demand-setting
meeting. The final (province-wide) demand-setting meeting is set for
the Friday of the OPSEU Broader Public Service conference, i.e., Nov.
27.
-
Bargaining. An initial exchange of positions
between MPAC and OPSEU is expected to happen in the first half of
December. Actual bargaining will begin in January.
Keep in touch!
To ensure a speedy response to
your questions, your leadership team has divided up all MPAC offices in the
province. If you have a question or a comment, please contact the bargaining
team member responsible for your office. Contact us by e-mail at work or at
home, as follows:
Ivan Herrington, Chair:
Barrie, Kitchener, London, Milner (CCC, CPF, LPU), Mississauga, Trenton.
E-mail: iherrington@cogeco.ca ;
herriniv@mpac.ca
Gary Cooper: Brantford,
Chatham, Goderich, Hamilton, Owen Sound, Sarnia, Windsor. E-mail:
gcooper@iaw.com ;
cooperga@mpac.ca
Everett Kelly: Oshawa,
Peterborough, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Toronto. E-mail:
evkelly@rogers.com ;
kellyev@mpac.ca
David Lynch: Bracebridge,
Dryden, Fort Frances, Kenora, North Bay, Ottawa, Parry Sound, Sault Ste.
Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Timmins. E-mail:
opseu409@yahoo.ca ;
lynchda@mpac.ca
Bill Robertson:
Bancroft, Brockville, Cornwall, Kingston, Pembroke. E-mail:
robertson2@cogeco.ca ;
robertbi@mpac.ca
OPSEU Impact is produced by
the Property Assessment Division of the Ontario Public Service Employees
Union and authorized for distribution by Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president.
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