NPCA and union fight over layoff

Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is laying off a senior data analyst because she’s a “union activist,” says the union representing NPCA employees.

NPCA denies the accusation, saying the layoff, which takes effect on Valentine’s Day, is happening for budgetary reasons.

In a Wednesday news release, Ontario Public Service Employees Union said it is demanding NPCA reverse its decision to layoff the analyst, who has been with the conservation authority for eight years and provides mapping and other data to residents.

“She is a highly skilled analyst who maintains the NPCA online maps and data,” said OPSEU regional vice-president Drew Finucane in the release.

“Because of her work, anyone in the public can find out where wetlands and conservation areas are, get information about properties they own or might want to buy, and learn how regulations impact their property.”

Once the woman is laid off, there will be one NPCA employee to manage those services.

OPSEU president Warren Thomas said he believes the NPCA employee is being targeted because she is a union steward and activist.

Thomas said the layoff is evidence of a troubled relationship between NPCA and its unionized employees.

He said there are currently 10 active employee grievances about NPCA before a provincial arbitrator.

“That’s about one grievance for every three unionized employees,” Thomas said in an interview Thursday.

The OPSEU release described the layoff as the “latest incident in the scandal-plagued NPCA’s history of poor labour relations,” and that in 2013 NPCA “fired and replaced a third of their staff over a period of a few months. The employees knew they needed protection and joined OPSEU in 2014.”

In an emailed statement, Peter Graham, NPCA acting chief administrative officer, said Thomas and OPSEU are “incorrect on a number of points.”

He wrote that the staffing change is “the result of budget deliberations.”

“We have met the budget guidance of one per cent as set by our budget committee. Further direction was given to no longer rely on financial reserves to fund staffing overages. The results of the budget deliberations also reduced the number of non-union staff. Furthermore, mapping and information services will continue to be provided to the residents within our watershed.”

Graham’s account of NPCA staffing changes in 2013 are at stark odds with the one offered by the union. He said only one employee was restructured that year.

And while in its news release OPSEU pointed to employee arbitration as a sign of poor labour relations, Graham said it is a “healthy mechanism for developing clarity on interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement.”