Ex-chief sues A’burg for stat holiday cash
Days in question occurred during period when he was being paid, but not working
The last police chief to serve the Town of Amherstburg is suing his ex-employer for what he’s claiming as unpaid statutory holiday pay covering an 18-month period.
In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, Tim Berthiaume, now a superintendent with the Windsor Police Service, is seeking $10,445.95 in compensation he feels is owed for statutory holidays he never got to take.
In a statement of defence, the town counters that Berthiaume, as an employee of the municipality, had the same choice as all other salaried workers on the town’s public payroll — either take those statutory holidays off or select alternative workdays off in lieu. Otherwise, it’s use them or lose them.
Berthiaume’s position as chief disappeared when Windsor police took over the town’s policing on Jan. 1. Of note, part of the financial compensation being sought is for statutory holidays over a sixmonth period this year when he was being paid but not working as a police officer for either the town or the Windsor Police Service.
Although accepting a position as WPS superintendent offered by then-windsor police chief Al Frederick, Berthiaume advised that he would not make the job transition until after the expiry of his existing contract as town police chief, effective the end of June. His 2018 salary was $181,461, according to Ontario’s Sunshine List.
For the first six months of the town’s new policing contract with the Windsor Police Service, therefore, Berthiaume was being paid separately by the town for a job that no longer existed, according to court documents filed in the lawsuit.
“Based on legal advice provided to Council, the direction issued by Council was that the Stat Holidays would not be paid out,” town CAO John Miceli states in a June 6, email to Berthiaume, one of many documents filed with the court.
According to the town’s statement of defence, Berthiaume was “only permitted to take a day off in lieu of a statutory holiday if he received the permission of the Board,” adding his contract did not allow for “cashing out ... holiday lieu days.”
Referring to the first six months of this year, the town’s defence states that, “in fact, he was compensated via salary throughout any 2019 holidays without having to report to work, and any further compensation for any statutory holidays or lieu days would amount to double compensation and thus a windfall.”
Supporting Berthiaume’s claim are members of the former Amherstburg police board, including chairman Bob Rozankovic, who fought hard against disbanding the town’s police force and council’s plan to contract out those services to Windsor’s department.
“That is true, we directed the town to pay that money,” Rozankovic told the Star Friday.
He said a contract is a contract and the board was committed to paying Berthiaume until his expired at the end of June.
Asked whether it might appear odd that the town’s ex-chief was being paid for a position that no longer existed while his new position with the Windsor Police Service awaited his arrival, Rozankovic said: “I can’t answer that.”
“So much was odd because everything here got rushed through,” he said.
Contacted by the Star, Berthiaume, who first became the town’s police chief in 2010, said: “I don’t think it’s ever wise to comment on a matter before the court.” Those first six months in 2019, he added, “I was on contract.”
In the final months leading up to the disbandment of the Amherstburg Police Service at the end of 2018, Miceli told the Star the town’s police board “was not very co-operative with the town.” He said the chief’s 2019 salary had to be “absorbed” in the approximately $900,000 fund council had budgeted for transitional costs.
The decision to make the switchover to the Windsor Police Service was a politically contentious issue in the town and became a main issue in the 2018 election, with voters appearing to side with the proponents who argued it came with large cost savings for taxpayers.
Rozankovic, running for deputy mayor, and former councillor and police board member Jason Lavigne — both named as witnesses for the plaintiff in any upcoming trial on the Berthiaume matter — lost in the October 2018 civic election.
“We paid him for everything he was entitled to,” said Miceli, adding the town paid Berthiaume for vacation and unused sick time but drew the line at statutory holidays. He and Mayor Aldo Dicarlo are also on the list of witnesses set to testify in court.