New firefighter contract will hit city budget hard

Arbitrator awarded salaries higher than police officers, at a cost of $32M a year

Toronto’s city manager is sounding the alarm about the potential implications of an “almost entirely onesided and unbalanced” Toronto firefighter arbitration award that boosted wages with “no cost offsets.”

A report on the agenda of next week’s executive committee warns the 2015-2018 firefighter contract will have a “significant financial impact” on the cost of operating the Toronto Fire Service.

Further, it will “challenge the ability of Toronto Fire Services to maintain effective on duty staffing levels on a day-to-day basis,” the report from city manager Peter Wallace says. “City staff are currently engaged in discussions regarding the city’s response to the decision.”

Attached to the report is a confidential document containing legal advice subject to solicitor-client privilege.

Meanwhile, the report is recommending council authorize staff to adjust the 2017 budget to reflect the award and “staff are proceeding with its implementation.”

The Aug. 17 award followed arbitration, after negotiations broke down between the city and the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association. The city’s 3,100 firefighters had been without a contract since 2014.

The award boosted wages by 8.35 per cent over four years, so at the end of the four-year deal, a first-class firefighter will earn $98,454 — about the same as a first-class police constable under a negotiated deal between the city and the Toronto Police Association. The firefighter base pay hike will add $32 million to the city budget by 2018.

Arbitrator James Hayes “broke from the long-established principle of wage parity” between first-class firefighters and their police counterparts by giving firefighters higher pay hikes in 2016 and 2017, the report says. This will result in Toronto firefighters earning $109 per year more than police in 2016 and $809 per year more in 2017, “premised on the principle that Toronto firefighters should be the highest-paid in the province,” the city manager’s report says.

Although “these figures may not appear significant, the arbitrator’s rationale for this award is more problematic,” the report says.

The award boosted wages by 8.35% over four years, so at the end of the deal, a first-class firefighter will earn $98,454

“Put simply, the arbitrator held that it was appropriate to pay Toronto firefighters more than Toronto police constables in order to ensure that Toronto firefighters were not paid less than firefighters in other municipalities,” says the report.

“This approach suggests that the City of Toronto will be affected by local wage settlements in small and unrelated municipalities across Ontario.”

In addition, while Toronto police “exchanged moderate wage increases for concessions,” none of those concessions were included in the arbitration award for firefighters.

“In fact, arbitrator Hayes failed to include any meaningful city proposals in this arbitration award, resulting in an award that is almost entirely one-sided and unbalanced.”

Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association, reiterated previous comments that the arbitrator’s decision was balanced.

The only way the city could seek a judicial review would be if the arbitrator made an error in law, Ramagnano said.

“You can’t appeal that you don’t like a decision, you can only appeal that there was in an error law,” he said.

“They (the city) would have to say the arbitrator made a decision on this, but he never took this or that into account, and I’m not aware of anything in this award where that would be the case.”