TORONTO – OPSEU President Leah Casselman has
congratulated the Ontario government for backing off on plans to
amalgamate six adjudicative bodies into a single powerful
"Mega-Tribunal."
The new body would have taken over the roles of the
Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Workplace Safety and Insurance
Appeals Tribunal, the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal, the Board of
Inquiry under the Ontario Human Rights Code, The College Relations
Commission and the Education Relations Commission.
In the process, the number of arbiters would have
been cut to about a third, and the specialized expertise of each
tribunal would have been lost or diluted.
"I congratulate the government on this
decision," said Casselman. "It was a bad idea. The public
expressed its concerns and problems, and the government listened.
"Now that the government has learned it can
back away from one bad idea, I hope it will take that experience and
apply it to the other bad ideas it has come up with."
She suggested the government could start with the
changes to the Public Service Act, private jails, the idea of tax
credits for private schools, the gutting of the Occupational Health
and Safety Act and privatization in the Ministry of Transportation.
"These are all bad ideas that the government should
abandon," she said.
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For further information:
Katie FitzRandolph (OPSEU Communications) (416)
448-7440; home (416) 967-5964; cell (416)561-5651; e-mail:
kfitzrandolph@opseu.org
Randy Robinson (OPSEU Communications) (416)
448-7441
Leah Casselman (OPSEU President) (416) 443-8888
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