FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30, 2002
Frontline CAS workers to new minister: Listen up on work overload!
TORONTO -- Front-line children’s aid workers from across Ontario say workload problems exposed in a study released a year ago have not been alleviated and that they are finding it more difficult to help vulnerable children.
The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU) commissioned the study, released in February of 2001.
A panel of children’s aid workers will discuss these problems at a news conference to be held:
Date: May 1, 2002
Time: 10:30 am
Place: Elm Room, Colony Hotel, 89 Chestnut Street, Toronto
Linda Aho, a Sudbury CAS employee and OPSEU’s CAS sector chair, will be on the panel. “We’ve got a new minister (Brenda Elliott) and we want to let her know that these longstanding issues haven’t been dealt with. We want the Ministry to address our workload issues by working with us and with the employers to solve this
crisis,” she says.
CUPE and OPSEU, which represent employees of children’s aid societies across Ontario, are coordinating their contract talks. Workload is a key issue for members of both unions. CAS staff say 70-80 per cent of their work time is tied up in paperwork and red tape.
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David Cox, OPSEU communications: 416-443-8888, ext. 314
