April 9, 2003
OPSEU fights intrusive security checks
OPSEU is taking steps to protect OPS members from a government plan for intrusive security checks.
In late March, Management Board Secretariat (MBS) said employees working with birth certificates, driver’s licenses and health cards, and in MBS Information Technology, will have to submit to security checks or be removed from their jobs.
The security checks would include a criminal record check, a credit check, and a check to see if workers are “known to police.” About 2,000 workers would be affected right away.
Security checks may be coming to all or part of the rest of the OPS in the future. To view the employer’s PowerPoint presentation on this, click here.
The union filed a grievance last week. We are seeking an “interim order” to put the security checks on hold until the Grievance Settlement Board (GSB) can rule on the issue. OPSEU is meeting with MBS today (Wednesday) to schedule hearings, which we hope can take place next week.
Last week, OPSEU joined forces with the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association, the Association of Law Officers of the Crown, and the Association of Physicians and Dentists in the Public Service to fight the plan. All four groups spoke out against it at a news conference April 1.
Paul Cavalluzzo, a respected litigator who served as counsel to the Walkerton Inquiry, spoke on behalf of the groups. His firm will handle the case for OPSEU and the Crown Attorneys.
“The bargaining agents and associations intend to challenge the employers’ position through any available means, including legal challenges, that these checks are an unreasonable invasion of an employee’s privacy, dignity and self-worth and clearly a violation of their Charter rights,” Cavalluzzo
told reporters. “It is just the first step in what looks to be a Draconian scheme.”
If you are forced to make a choice...
It is possible that the employer will ask OPSEU members to agree to the security checks (in writing) as early as next week. Management Board Secretariat and the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services would likely be the first targets, with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of
Transportation following suit some time later.
If you are asked to sign an “election form,” inform your union steward immediately (stewards should inform their OPSEU staff representative).
If you refuse to sign the form, the employer will deny you security clearance and remove you from your job. You may be placed in another job that doesn’t require security checks, but so far the employer has offered zero guarantees.
The union’s goal is to deal with member concerns at the GSB before the employer hands out the election forms. However, we don’t know when the GSB will rule. If you are asked to fill out an election form, wait until the last minute before the employer’s deadline. That will give the GSB more time.
If there is no more news just before the deadline, hand in your signed election form. “Obey now, grieve later” is the safest bet. Will this approach violate your right to privacy? Yes. But it will also keep you in your job. If you have to sign, write “I am signing this under protest and without
prejudice to my grievance rights” on the form.
Stay tuned for more news. A speedy GSB ruling that protects your rights is the best possible outcome.
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