TORONTO – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is welcoming the province’s contract meat inspectors back into the Ontario Public Service.
In a grievance settlement ratified Thursday, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food agreed to post public service jobs for 118 meat inspectors. The new public employees will join the 10 Agricultural Specialists already working for OMAF in over 200 provincially-inspected abattoirs.
“We applaud the new Liberal government for fulfilling this campaign promise,” said OPSEU president Leah Casselman. “This settlement recognizes the work of the people who do one of the toughest, bloodiest, and most important jobs in Ontario. It’s a crucial first step in stabilizing and revitalizing our meat safety system to protect the health of
all Ontarians.”
The former Conservative government axed all but eight of the province’s meat inspectors in 1996-97, replacing them with contract inspectors. Poor working conditions – frozen wages, no benefits or pension plan, sporadic reimbursement of expenses – led to annual turnover rates as high as 30 per cent. High turnover meant high numbers of inexperienced
inspectors on the job, resulting in huge variations in inspection quality.
“Good union jobs for inspectors will cut the turnover rate immediately,” said Casselman. “We’re looking forward to tackling some of the other issues, like the need for more training and expansion of the meat inspection system to cover ‘further processing’ plants.”
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For more information:
Randy Robinson (416) 448-7441, (416) 788-9134 (cell)
