Arbitration likely means two raises for firefighters
City looking to trim 14 positions from service to make up for increased cost of personnel
Ottawa’s firefighters are getting at least one big raise and probably a second, thanks to a new union contract set by a provincial arbitration panel.
The award doesn’t mean the city is prepared to spend more money on the fire department, Mayor Jim Watson said. It’s cutting 14 jobs from the 1,033-person department in 2014 partly to make up for the fact firefighters are getting more expensive.
“When inflation is running at something close to 1.4 per cent and the increase is close to three per cent, that’s not sustainable in the short term or the long term,” he said. “We’re not going to go and look to the taxpayer for the savings, we’re going to look to the fire department for the savings.”
The rank-and-file members of the fire department have been working under an expired collective agreement since the beginning of 2012.
In a decision this week, they were awarded a pay increase of 2.95 per cent for that year, plus what is called a “me-too” award for 2013 that will give them whatever pay hike Ottawa’s police officers get in their own contract for 2013, which hasn’t been settled yet. The last police contract, also settled in arbitration, gave police officers pay increases just shy of three per cent as well.
The slow arbitration process — bargaining began on the contract more than two years ago — means the firefighters get a new contract just a few weeks before it expires, so the process can start all over again.
There is room in the city budget to cover the back pay for 2012, Watson said, but the fire department and city council will have to figure out what to do about the 2013 payment once they find out how much it is.
Politicians across Ontario have
‘When inflation is running at something close to 1.4 per cent and the increase is close to three per cent, that’s not sustainable.’
MAYOR JIM WATSON
fumed about the system that has arbitrators applying fairly arbitrary rules to decide how much essential workers like police officers and firefighters should be paid. In this case, the arbitration panel noted that Ottawa’s firefighters and police officers have historically been paid the same, and that was pretty much it:
“Arbitrator Russell Goodfellow, in an award dated April 5, 2013, provided for Ottawa Police salary increases of 2.99% for 2011 and 2.95% for 2012,” the panel’s decision says. “Given ... these parties have maintained police-fire parity over a prolonged period, we are persuaded ... to do the same here.”