For OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service:

Bill 25 makes OPS bargaining even more important!

The Conservative government at Queen’s Park has (once again!) made public employees the target of a new law.

On April 30, 2001, the Tories introduced Bill 25, a law to change the Public Service Act (PSA) and parts of the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act (CECBA). These two laws set the basic rules around the work of OPSEU members in the OPS. The proposed changes do not override your OPSEU collective agreement. They do set the table for the next one. Our current collective agreement expires Dec. 31, 2001.

The government says it will use its majority to pass this law quickly. The changes it contains could have a big impact on your working life.

OPSEU members need to make sure that the upcoming round of OPS bargaining deals with these changes. Just as importantly, we need to voice our concerns about this bill to MPPs and the public. The following pages give you key information about Bill 25 – and what you can do about it.

What does Bill 25 do?
If passed into law as is, Bill 25 would let your OPS employer:

1. Create new "term classified" positions.

Under the current Public Service Act, employees are either appointed to the public service ("classified") or not ("unclassified"). Bill 25 would create a new kind of contract job lasting up to three years. These "term classified" jobs would have some of the benefits of classified jobs, but none of the job security protections.

Bill 25 does not limit the number of term classifieds the employer can hire. The availability of these employees could inspire the employer to stop filling classified jobs altogether. There goes your next promotion!

In the last round of bargaining, the employer demanded the right to hire new employees who were immune from bumping for three years. The OPSEU bargaining teams were able to beat back this demand at the table. The use of "term classifieds" may be a new attempt to bring in new people while laying off classified staff.

2. Hire new unclassified employees on three-year contracts.

Currently the PSA says new unclassified employees may only be hired on contracts no longer than one year.  

3. Give authority over OPS employees to private operators or managers in other Ministries.

This change paves the way for shared services and privatization. You could be an OPS employee, covered by your OPSEU contract, but your boss might be a private operator. The private operator could fire, discipline, or transfer you, or do any of the things your Deputy Minister can do.

4. Allow OPS managers and private operators to change workplace rules that, in the past, could only be changed by Cabinet.

In cases where your collective agreement is silent, this could give Cabinet-level power over your working conditions to anyone who happened to be your boss (see #3).

5. Expand access to the Workplace Information Network (WIN).

Right now, your personal information is available to your manager and people in your Ministry who have a specific Human Resources reason to see it. The new law will share your information right across the OPS. Any person involved in "providing an integrated human resources program" will be able to see your file. That means hundreds of H.R. people and computer people.

As WIN grows, it will include basic data like your name and address, plus your seniority and use of sick time. Eventually, your medical records, disciplinary files, and past grievances will be on the system, too. Nothing in Bill 25 says these records may not be read by any private operator who becomes your boss (see #3), as long as he or she is "engaged in providing an integrated human resources program."

6. Give the Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) the chance to represent about 2,500 OPP civilians, mostly OPSEU members.

The OPP has been the Harris government’s attack dog on several occasions. The clubbing of strikers at Queen’s Park and the shooting of Dudley George at Ipperwash are only the most famous. The police association openly supported the Conservatives in the 1999 provincial election. Bill 25 gives the OPPA a one-time chance to try to organize members of OPSEU and two other bargaining units (AMAPCEO and PEGO).

Under the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA), any group applying to represent a new group of workers must be a union. Bill 25 creates an exception for the OPPA. The OPPA is not a union. Under the Public Service Act, it can’t be. Under the OLRA, any union seeking to organize a group of workers must organize the entire bargaining unit. The OPPA will be exempt from this. The government plans to use its majority to carve a 2,500-person chunk out of the existing OPS unit.

If members of any of the three existing unions opt to join the OPPA, they automatically leave the OPS and lose the protections of their contracts. For OPSEU members at the OPP, this means loss of the right to bump or transfer to jobs within the OPS. Nothing in Bill 25 gives these workers any guarantees that they will keep any of the protections in their current contract, e.g., the "reasonable efforts" clause for workers whose jobs are divested.  

While OPP employees have access to arbitration to settle contract issues, the range of issues that the arbitrator can look at is very limited.

Under Section 26 (4) of the PSA, the employer sets all rules governing discipline, termination, job classification and evaluation, promotion, demotion, transfer, and layoff. No arbitrator may rule on these issues.

Find out more

Read the (first reading) text of Bill 25 on the Legislative Assembly web site at http://www.ontla.on.ca/library/bills/25372.htm.

What can you do about Bill 25?

1. Get ready for your Local Demand Review

No matter where you work in the OPS, your OPSEU collective agreement is your best protection from the changes in Bill 25. Section 29 (3) of the PSA says that your collective agreement prevails over any regulation passed under the Public Service Act.

Bill 25 creates a raft of issues that we now have to take into account in the upcoming round of bargaining. Our contract expires Dec. 31, 2001. First, we need to make sure we have the right contract demands for the post-Bill 25 workplace. Second, we have to get behind the bargaining teams to turn those demands into real protections in the collective agreement.

OPSEU members set our OPS contract demands in Local meetings in February. In June, Local Demand Review gives members a chance to fine-tune those demands. With Bill 25 likely to be passed soon, we now have to review our February demands and check them against the changes in Bill 25. If we need to create new demands specifically to deal with Bill 25, the Local Demand Review meetings are the place to do it.

2. Demand public hearings – call your MPP

Except for one two-hour conversation with OPSEU in April 2000, almost all of Management Board’s "consultation" was with Ministry managers.

This is ridiculous. The public service is a vital part of Ontario society. Changes to how it works concern not only public employees, but all citizens. How will Bill 25 affect public accountability? How does it affect employees’ privacy? Does it make the public service more independent from political interference and corruption, or less? Should the OPPA receive special treatment compared to other organizations? What about whistleblower protection for public employees?

These are the questions our lawmakers should be discussing. Public hearings are absolutely essential to creating the best possible Public Service Act. Call your MPP. Demand public hearings into Bill 25.

3. Get converted!

If you are an unclassified worker, it’s pretty easy to guess what the employer’s plan is. Right now, Article 31.15 of your OPSEU contract says that unclassified workers who work for two years may be entitled to be converted to classified status. If the employer can hire people on three-year contracts, they will likely demand the right to convert unclassified workers to classified status after three years, not two.

Your OPS bargaining teams will resist demands for concessions from the employer. All the same, if you have been an unclassified worker for at least two years, now is a good time to read Article 31.15 ("Conversion of unclassified positions to classified positions") to see if you qualify for conversion. If you think you do, get your records from Human Resources. Request conversion. If your request is denied, file a grievance.

4. Ask to see your personnel file

Is there anything in your personnel file that shouldn’t be in there? If there is, ask to have it removed.

Produced by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union
100 Lesmill Road, Toronto M3B 3P8; www.opseu.org; opseu@opseu.org
Authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.

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Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Rd. Toronto, ON M3B 3P8  (416) 443-8888  www.opseu.org