Corrections Division
May 6, 2010
Greetings Division,
Your MCSCS MERC team has been busy with a full agenda, attempting to address site issues as well working to create better working conditions for our members. Here are some of the items we have worked on and continue to work on.
Institutions
Rollovers and Laterals
Your MERC team was successful in negotiating with management approximately 260 rollovers and 40 laterals across the province with all sites receiving some rollovers – 40 more than what was specified in the Collective Agreement. We continue to request more rollovers for those members that still remain in the fixed term ranks and hope that some day that all our fixed terms will be given a regular (full-time classified) job and any new hires from that point on will be hired as full-time classified Correctional Officers. In our opinion, this is a step in the right direction of legitimizing Correctional Officers in the law enforcement community. At the same time we remain cognizant of the need to allow our members to move around the province.
Regional Labour Relations Forums
We continue to have our regional forums with Brother Paul Johnstone chairing the Western and Northern Forums and Brother Dan Sidsworth taking the lead at the Central and Eastern Forums. We believe it is a good way of having dialogue amongst our union leaders and management to try and address regional issues. In the North, we have come up with some novel approaches, i.e. a subcommittee on best practices for searches. The next scheduled meeting for the Northern Forum is June 15th and 16th in Sudbury so please forward any issues to MERC lead Paul so we can add to the agenda. Western dates to follow. Same goes for the Central and Eastern Region Forums, any issues please get to Dan ASAP.
Toronto South and Southwest Detention Centres
We continue to work on being involved on these two new Jail projects, with Brother Dan chairing for the MERC at the Toronto South and Brother Paul spearheading the Southwest site. The union continues to request of management that executives of locals and union members participate in the development of these projects on an ongoing basis.
Training and Development
The committee continues to work towards having training rolled out for Correctional Staff across the province. MERC lead is Paul Johnstone and other members are Dan Marshall (TWDC); Shari Archdekin (Vanier); Jim Mitchell (North Bay Jail) and David Kerr (St. Thomas P&P). Our long range goal is to get senior members back to college for in depth training on Guns and Gangs, Stress Management, and Working with Mentally Ill Offenders.
Fixed Term (unclassified) Correctional Officer Sub-Committee
Dan Sidsworth is leading this issue. The committee continues to meet with Fixed Term members and management. The terms of reference are almost finalized. Composition on the union side is being changed now due to the last members on the committee being rolled over into classified full-time jobs.
ASMPP
The employer committed to rewrite their policies subsequent to the issuance of Vice-Chair Keller’s Award that was handed down on February 5, 2010. What we have seen is a softening of their position, however they have not gone far enough and we will be returning in front of Vice-Chair Keller in the near future for firm direction from the Board. Specifically, the employer continues to waffle on clear direction to the field to not include absences that stem from a bona fide disability under the Ontario Human Rights Code. That would also include WSIB absences. We have already moved the employer back a fair distance and we remain confident that at the end of the day, our position will prevail.
Absenteeism Target Incentives
The calculation under Absenteeism Target Incentives will be based on two per cent of the employee’s straight-time hourly rate as of December 2009, for the period from March 12, 2009 through to December 31, 2009. Overtime hours worked between March 12 and December 31, 2009 will be included in the incentive payment calculation as straight time.
Just a reminder that the ASMPP target incentives are scheduled for payout on May 13, 2010.
JASIC (Joint Attendance Strategy and Implementation Committee)
The list below is the number of members who are at the various attendance levels as reported recently to the JASIC Committee. Many of the members who are included in these figures have NOT been reviewed by the Attendance Support Management Office (ASMO). In many instances, once ASMO reviews a case that member is moved down one or two levels.
Institutions
Level 1 1,286
Level 2 214
Level 3 30
Level 4 11
Community
Level 1 110
Level 2 6
Level 3 0
Level 4 0
The committee continues to press that management and union look at positive ways to address issues that create high sick time in our division. These issues include violence against staff, overcrowding and understaffing, drugs, weapons and security threat groups.
Committee on Health and Productivity (sub-committee of JASIC)
Dan Sidsworth for MERC and Emidio Casullo for the Provincial OHSC have been working on this issue. The committee is a sub-committee of the JASIC and was formed to assist in reduction of sick credits, assisting members through sick time process, to reduce grievances relating to sick time as well as review accommodations as required.
The Terms of Reference for this pilot have just recently been signed and the pilot site of Maplehurst has been chosen by the sub-committee.
Policy Grievances
Some of the outstanding policy grievances are:
- CTO – unilateral removal of compensating time off across the province
- Police Escorts – outstanding issues of police doing correctional officers’ work.
- Inmate Court Transfers – Ministry pays municipalities to transfer inmates to court, work should be with our members
- Use of Force Instructors – managers being used to do bargaining unit work
- Fixed Term Employees – Not being compensated for hiring errors
Security and Inmate Management Initiatives
Many of the recommendations of this committee to management are being rolled out. Items include canine units and standardized security equipment
We are encouraged by management’s move to address the issue of drugs, weapons and gangs in our work sites by piloting institutional security teams. This initiative is currently in MWDC and CNCC, and will soon be at the Toronto Jail. If it continues to be a success we are hoping that the ministry will be given resources for future teams for other sites.
Pride and Profession
Dress uniforms should be available in near future. Management is in the process of finalizing the procurement of a uniform.
Enhancing our public profile is an important piece of building community support for our struggles. Public presentations to the community from our members continue to be something we are looking forward to have in place.
We continue to encourage our locals to participate in their community and forward your stories to MERC so we can place your community work on our web site.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Paul Johnstone with members Tom O’Neill, Quinte Detention Centre, and Sarah Harries-Jones, Toronto Jail, are working on a process to begin doing a study on PTSD in corrections. Thus far there has only been one study regarding corrections done in Canada by a student in Saskatchewan. We are looking forward to the results of the study which should assist our understanding of what is affecting our members in the field. This in turn will inform our discussions on recommendations to mitigate these factors. We are currently drafting Terms of Reference for this Committee.
Community Issues
PPO3 Grievance:
In 2009 Vice-Chair Herlich agreed with our position on the PPO3 issue and ordered the employer to negotiate settlement with the union. The employer instead asked for a judicial review of the decision. The hearing was held on April 23rd, 2010. The arguments are being weighed and we will report on the outcome as soon as we receive word.
Ministry File Review Committee (Grievance pilot project)
Appendix 41 in our collective agreement provided for the development of a pilot project creating six Ministry File Review Committees (MFRCs).
These committees have the purpose of reviewing grievances that have been referred to the GSB. The committee is comprised of three union and three management representatives who attempt to find effective and expeditious resolutions at the Ministry level.
For lack of better explanation, the MFRC can be considered a “Stage 2.5” in the grievance procedure.
The committee has been meeting since January and progress has been rather slow as the parties work out the process. We are hopeful that better results will start to percolate from this committee in the near future.
Accommodations in P&P:
People with injury, illness or disabilities have been experiencing difficulties trying to get an appropriate accommodation from the employer. Those with accommodations find issues where their accommodations are being challenged by the employer. A working group has commenced with the objective to review accommodation practices in Community Corrections and develop some guidelines on how the employer can best meet their duty to accommodate employees in P&P offices.
Staffing, Hiring & Lateral Transfers:
The economic climate has lead to drastic measures by the employer especially in the area of staffing. MGS has ordered a zero per cent increase in FTEs for all Ministries. That has repercussions in our offices when short term unexpected leaves or recurring short term leaves happen. The employer has been reluctant to backfill any of these leaves.
To approve the backfill for leaves, a compelling business case must be submitted by your area managers. That includes detailing all of the circumstances of the office, IE how many staff are new and require training (these leaves create office pressures), how many are on accommodation, are there higher than average PSR demands, what demands create pressures and what impact failing to replace staff will cause. In the cases where backfill has been denied, the AMs have likely done poor business cases that basically just stated the details of the leave and the request for staff.
When you are aware of a potential leave or backfill situation, stewards or staff should be approaching the area manager to discuss the office dynamics that should be included in the business case.
The issue of developing a fair and equitable practice around the use of lateral transfers continues to be at the MERC table. The employer is having difficulty agreeing to this because it will limit the managers’ ability to control who they get in their office. It is clearly a discriminatory practice that erodes fair opportunities for many employees.
Workload:
The Workload Subcommittee is still piloting the Workload Analysis Tool (WAT) in eight offices across the province. We have received useful feedback. A common concern was the accuracy of weighting for intensive supervision cases as well as domestic and sexual offences cases. The committee will be encouraging participation in an upcoming time study for these special cases so that we can verify weightings and have a more accurate tool for the provincial rollout.
The Best Practices Document for Workload Distribution has been out for almost two years. Workload should be a standing item at all staff meetings and it should be discussed in a fulsome manner. That includes the sharing of workload statistics and any other information that would impact workload in a given office.
Any workload issues that cannot be resolved at a local level should be referred to your Regional ERC teams for discussion at the regional level. If they continue to be unresolved they can then be referred to the MERC table as per the collective agreement.
Workload concerns continue to be a high level problem in our offices. The ever-increasing demands on officers and support staff are never complemented with additional staff. There are ongoing changes to policy and practices that threaten to further increase the duties and responsibilities of our positions.
In the absence of additional resources, the employer must revisit our policies and procedures to find efficiencies that will allow staff to reasonably manage workload.
Duty Assignments & Specialized Roles:
The Best Practices document for rotation of duty assignments and specialized roles was released to the field in August of 2009. By this time every office should have tabled this issue at their staff meetings and started the process of equitable assignment of these opportunities
Divisional Team Work & Capacity Building
Your MERC team continues to share the work load as well as utilizing other members from local executives to assist and build capacity of experience for the division. We also recognize that work that is done to support labour relations at the work sites must have resources, we continue to request of management that when joint processes occur that our stewards be given time off with no loss of credits.
We have developed a communication process that is timely, informative and is second to none among all OPS Divisions. We are proud of our web site and we will continue to get as much information out to the division as we possible can.
Your MERC will continue to work hard for the membership and it is an honour to be representing the hard working sisters and brothers of the Corrections Division
Thank you and In Solidarity,
MCSCS MERC
List of Committees and Members in MCSCS Corrections
MERC Team
Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida, Gord Longhi, Paul Johnstone, Dan Sidsworth
Staff Resources: Sandra Harper, Scott Andrews, Blair Pitfield, Don Ford
Sub-Committees of MERC
Reasonable Efforts
- Youth Disentanglement – Eddy Almeida & Sandra Harper
- Toronto South – Eddy Almeida & Sandra Harper
- South Western – Eddy Almeida & Sandra Harper
Toronto South
Dan Sidsworth
Nick Mustari
H&S and local presidents/executives
South Western
Paul Johnstone
Brian Chauvin
H&S and local president/executives
Laterals and Job Trades
Eddy Almeida
Sandra Harper
P&P Workload Subcommittee
Gord Longhi
Barb Friday
Brian Dunham
Lorraine Skitch
Ida Rosati
Regional Labor Relations Forums
Eddy Almeida
- Western Region – Paul Johnstone
- Northern Region – Paul Johnstone
- Central Region - Dan Sidsworth
- Eastern Region - Dan Sidsworth
Grievance Resource
Eddy Almeida
Scott Andrews
Transition Med Arbs
Eddy Almeida
Sandra Harper
Security Committee / Guns and Gangs/Institutional Security Teams
MERC
Training and Development
Paul Johnstone
Dan Marshall
Jim Mitchell
Shari Archdekin
David Kerr
Overtime Protocol Committee (H-PRO)
MERC
Emidio Casullo
Unclassified Committee
Dan Sidsworth
Christy Graham
Steve Guylee
Kerry Grey
P&P Rep
(Committee composition to change).
Investigations Committee
Dan Sidsworth
Janice Zultak
Jim Mitchell
John Mengia
Blair Pitfield (Staff Resource)
COTA / P&P Ontario Correctional Services College
MERC
Brian Dunham
ASP
MERC
- Sub-Committee: IME – Dan Sidsworth, Emidio Casullo, Diana Clarke (Staff Resource)
Rollovers
MERC
Pride in Profession
MERC
Ministry File Review Project: P&P
Gord Longhi
David Kerr
Frank Inglis (Staff Resource)
JASIC
Eddy Almeida
Paul Johnstone
Gord Longhi
Scott Andrews
- Health and Productivity sub-committee
Dan Sidsworth
Emidio Casullo
Support Staff Committee/Bailiffs:
RN/Medical/Health Care/Services/Programs/Bailiffs
MERC
Charlene Cole
Greg Arnold
(Day to be added to future MERC Meeting for these issues)
Provincial Occupational Health and Safety Committee
Brian Chauvin
Emidio Casullo
Nick Mustari
Brian Dunham
Terri Aversa (Staff Resource)
SAROC sub-committee
Gord Longhi
Brian Chauvin
Mark Brewster
Lori Kruger
Eddy Almeida.
Jim Paul, Marg Smoke (Staff Resources)
- Local SAROCC’s
- Wellness Program
- Critical Incident Response Protocol
- Work Plan for SAROC Program
- Specialized Grievance Process
- STAP
- External Audit
- Communications
- ESR
- Anti-Racism Integration
Probation & Parole
Regional ERC Teams
Eastern Region ERC
Mike Letwin, Belleville P&P - co-chair
Brian Dunham, Cornwall P&P
Georges Sirois, Ottawa Centre P&P
Kim King, Port Perry P&P
Alternates
Paul Russell, Ottawa West P&P
Ron Gendron, Cornwall P&P
Terry Goodwin, Minden P&P
Western Region ERC
Lorraine Skitch, Brantford Co-Chair,
David Kerr, St Thomas
Tracey Rath, London East
Diane Trachy, Welland
Alternates
Jeff Kennedy, Guelph
Phil Bagley, London Centre
Northern Region ERC
Barb Friday, Thunder Bay – Co-Chair
Jane Van Toen, Kenora
S. McIntyre, North Bay
R. Larcher, Sudbury
Alternates
Dennis Ginter , Sault Ste. Marie
Diane Gallupe, North Bay
Central Region ERC
Dianna Fedun, Etobicoke South – Co-Chair
Paul Attard, Parkdale
Lina Kool, Keswick
John Bouweraerts, Brampton
Alternates
Sherri Demers, Black Creek
Ida Rosati, Black Creek