August 3,
2006
Grievance
award “huge victory” for court reporters
A Grievance
Settlement Board (GSB) award issued recently on the work of
court reporters is being hailed as a huge victory for both
court reporters and OPSEU.
The issue was the
preparation and certification of court transcripts. Since the
1980s, this work was excluded from the duties of court
reporters. As a result, the transcript work was contracted out
to court reporters for a fee. This, said Attorney General MERC
chair Julie Weber, meant that a sizable portion of a court
reporter’s job was never recognized as part of their
“official” work.
“This is a great
victory for the union,” Weber said. “Now that this work has
been ruled as bargaining unit work, it will be covered by the
collective agreement.”
GSB Vice-Chair
Abramsky ruled that the work of a court reporter “does not
consist solely of taking the record” and that the
transcription and certification of that record must be a part
of a court reporter’s official duties. While the work of
transcribing and certifying was done mostly on the employee’s
own time, there were many cases where this work was done on
the employer’s time. Despite this, the employer claimed that
the court reporters were not employees while doing the
transcription work, and that they were, in fact, independent
contractors.
“This is an issue
we have fought since the early nineties,” said Paul Myers,
member of the Attorney General MERC. “It’s a big win for us to
have this work included.”
Now that the
determination has been made by the GSB, it will be up to the
union and the employer to work out the details of implementing
the ruling. Myers expects that this will take some time.
“There will be a
lot of issues to contend with,” Myers said. “But it’s
certainly work we look forward to doing.”
Original
authorized for distribution by Leah Casselman, president.
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3, 2006 Issue of
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