Children’s Aid Society wants vote on final offer

Union says 95 per cent of striking workers unwilling to consider agency’s terms

More than two months since Children’s Aid Society workers in Peel Region began striking, the agency is asking the Ministry of Labour to hold a supervised vote of employees on its final offer to the union.

“It’s been a long and difficult strike and we are eager to have our employees back at work,” said CEO Rav Bains in a statement. “Over the past few weeks, we have been unable to reach an agreement with the union. We believe that staff should have the final say on whether they want to accept the offer.”

Under the Ontario Labour Relations Act, an employer can request a formal secret ballot vote by employees on its final offer, to be supervised by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, prior to or during a strike. While the board sets out the time and location of the vote, Peel CAS has asked that it take place Dec. 8.

“It’s just another delay tactic,” said Sonia Yung, president of CUPE 4914, which represents 435 children’s aid workers in Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon. “We’re now in week 11, they’re proposing that it not even take place until the end of week 12, which doesn’t make sense to me either. If . . . you want your employees back to work, then you would have the vote now, as soon as possible.”

The two sides haven’t negotiated in about a month, and Yung said the final offer is identical to the one tabled when the strike began. A recent internal vote indicated 95 per cent of union members did not even want to consider the offer, let alone agree to its terms, she said.

The agency and its employees continue to differ on workload issues. Yung said there is a cap of 17 new investigations per month that can be assigned to intake workers like herself, which the union wants reduced to 16 for any 30-day period.

Other children’s aid societies, such as those in Toronto and Durham Region, have maximums of 12 to 14 new investigations per month. However, there are also caps in those regions on the number of active cases intake workers can have open at a given time, which range from 16 to 20.

This doesn’t exist in Peel, meaning workers are sometimes dealing with more than 30 cases at a time, according to Yung. Lessening each worker’s load would go a long way for their health and well-being, she said.

“That way, kids aren’t falling through the cracks because you have the time and ability to pay attention to what really needs to be paid attention to,” Yung said.

Bains said the proposal isn’t financially viable. Peel CAS’s final offer includes $1.8 million in new spending for wage increases and improvements to benefits such as mileage, cellphone and family leave, as well as a $1,000 lump sum payment, according to Bains. He estimated that meeting the union’s demands would cost an additional $1 million.

“Reducing caseloads means hiring more staff,” he stated. “This is funding we don’t have.”

Both sides are also still stuck on job evaluation processing. While Peel CAS says it’s willing to increase the union’s input into rates of pay for new jobs, as well as existing jobs “which have changed significantly,” the union wants a committee established “that would assess and rate jobs jointly.”

Yung said existing jobs for which staff have historically been undercompensated would be left behind by the agency’s latest proposal.

The union has called for binding arbitration to put an end to the standstill, which Peel CAS opposes. A provincially appointed mediator rejected the union’s call to resume bargaining on Nov. 9, indicating another meeting wouldn’t be useful since both sides were too far apart on the final offer.

Yung said workers have shown strong resolve since the strike began Sept. 19 but are eager to return to work, especially with the holiday season around the corner.