December 11, 2002
Pay delay for reclassified court workers
It all sounds a little too familiar.
Two months after most OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service finally got the money owed to them under the new collective agreement, over 400 court workers are still waiting to get the money owed to them since they were re-classified in June.
On June 27, FRONTlines reported that OPSEU and the government had signed a deal to reclassify 429 OPSEU members in the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG). Some 349 OAG-6s were to be reclassified as OAG-8s. A further 80 judges’ secretaries, working as OAG-8s, were to be reclassified as OAG-9s.
The settlement has not changed. But none of the OPSEU members have seen the higher wages (and attached retro pay) they are supposed to get.
What’s the hold-up this time?
Originally, the wage hikes for the reclassified court workers were held up while OPSEU members waited for the employer to deliver on the wage hikes bargained in the new collective agreement. The employer reasoned that it did not make sense to reclassify people to a higher level while the wage rates
were still the ones from the old contract. “Rebuilding the pay tables,” as it’s called, took five months. The employer was then supposed to start paying the reclassified members at their new level within 30 days after that. At least that’s what Management Board and MAG agreed to. The reclassified members should have received their new pay
rates and retroactive pay on their Dec. 5 paycheques. It didn’t happen.
Now the employer says those workers will get the new rate on Feb. 13, 2003 and their retroactive pay on Feb. 27. That’s eight months since they signed the reclassification deal.
This is in spite of the fact that OPSEU members on the Joint System Subcommittee have already organized all the information for Management Board.
Under the June settlement, over 180 court workers who grieved their classification will get retroactive pay back to the date they grieved. Workers in the same situation who did not grieve will get retro back to April 2002. The OPSEU members on the JSSC have checked and double-checked the information
for each member and forwarded it to the employer in a neat document.
“When we put pressure on the employer over the summer to pay up the money they owed OPSEU members, they were able to make an interim payment within a week,” says Roy Storey, OPSEU Supervisor for the OPS. “If they could do that for 45,000 people, there is no reason they can’t do it a lot faster for
429.”
OPSEU is filing a policy grievance to seek interest on the delayed pay for the court workers. In the meantime, OPSEU members may contact Management Board Chair David Tsubouchi at (416) 327-2333 to demand faster payment. Once you’ve done that, contact your MPP to let him or her know what’s going on.
Contact information for all MPPs is available on line at http://www.ontla.on.ca/Members/mailing_addresses/index.htm .
Original authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, President
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