CORRECTIONS MERC

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 23^rd, 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

Greetings Corrections Division,

  Attached is a Ministry of Labour Fact Sheet on Protecting Workers from Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment: Bill 168 amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act that is available at:

 http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/sawo/pubs/fs_workplaceviolence.php

 and three HSAGS Fast Facts on workplace violence, including the Fast Fact: Workplace Violence: Complying with the Occupational Health & Safety Act; Workplace Bullying; and Domestic Violence.  The Fast Facts plus additional Resource Books and Posters are available at:

 http://www.osach.ca/products/free_violence.shtml

 It would be very helpful if you could distribute these fact sheets to y/our members.  We would like to ensure, as we are certain all of us would, that workers/members in our communities and institutions, the LERC’s and JHSCs  are aware of the amendments coming into effect on June 15, 2010 and the requirements of Protecting Workers From Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment.

In Health, Safety and Solidarity, Corrections MERC/POH&SC

Greetings Division, 

There is more and more training being done via the Intranet and some of it is being described as mandatory. If you are required to do this training it is agreed upon that the employer provide members with relief to do this work.

 There have been issues in the field and shop floor with some sites not giving relief to members to do this work…if this is the case at your location, please inform your local executive and in turn they can inform the MERC and CERC so we can address this.

 Thank you and in sol., MERC

Regarding CTO

Greetings Presidents/Division

The Parties met on Monday March 29 at the GSB and spent most of the day listening to the employer’s preliminary objection to the GSB hearing the case.  Our counsel, Andrew Lokan from Paliare Roland spent the last part of the afternoon in reply.  As many of you may know and some of you may not know, grievances are not a one day process, and in this case, it appears to be one that the employer is digging in on, so like most cases, this will take some time to get a resolution or decision.

The parties are reconvening on May 19^th to complete the reply and have written to the Board for leave to immediately begin our case in the afternoon, so in effect, having the Board reserve on the preliminary until the case has been fully presented.  The employer is opposing this motion and is asking for a ruling on the preliminary first before the case is fully presented; another delaying tactic. 

A convincing written argument from our counsel was sent this morning to the Board and we await the procedural decision.  In a nutshell the employer’s preliminary objection again is to the Board’s jurisdiction to review a management right.  Employer counsel spent three and one-half hours repeating the same argument over and over again, trying to convince someone, not quite sure who of this right.  Andrew, who appears in the court system on a regular basis, including the Supreme Court of Canada, is polished and has been precise in his reply. 

Once the procedural award is released we will hopefully be able to distribute the same to the division which could have an effect on some of the future dates.  We currently have the following dates booked, May 19, 20, June 9, 10, and are seeking additional dates.

Those present at the hearing on March 29^th included a past president out of the Metro West Detention Centre as his institution had the best local protocol that will be an integral part of the union’s case, as well as an activist out of Maplehurst who will be providing evidence.

I would also encourage the members to look at the MERC minutes that can be found as a link off this web page but also off of the OPSEU web site itself under the tab Leadership and then sector executive, look for MCSCS minutes. Link is http://www.opseu.org/ops/merc/correctionsmminutes.htm while you are at it have a look at the other ministries and compare the agendas….we are always a bit behind on minutes as we have to sign off at next meetings.

Thank you and in sol., MERC

Please see the latest Lock Talk media release for February 10, 2010.

To view the document: Click Here!

Lock Talk

A publication of the OPSEU Corrections Division

January 29, 2010

JASIC targets met!

Your MERC Teams have learned that the attendance targets set out under the Joint Attendance Strategy and Implementation Committee (JASIC) have been met. Our congratulations to all Youth Services Officers and Correctional Officers in the Corrections Division.

As a result, outstanding overtime payments for all members should be processed imminently. As well, the employer will shortly provide the agreed additional lump sum payment of 2 per cent of your straight-time hourly rate as of December 31, 2009 for all hours worked in the period from the date of ratification to December 31, 2009.

To achieve the 2010 absenteeism target incentives, the attendance average for Youth Services Officers and Correctional Officers must be 176 hours or less as indicated in Article COR15.1 and COR 18.1.

Your MERC Teams thanks you for your continued support.

Employer waives probation for rollovers

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) has agreed to waive the probationary period of all Fixed Term (Unclassified) Correctional Officers who were rolled over on December 28, 2009 under COR 9 – Letter of Understanding (Rollover of Fixed Term Correctional Officers).

Please note that the waiving of the probationary period is separate and distinct from the waiving period for vacation and benefits.

As per Article 44.2 of the OPS Collective Agreement, employees must work twenty (20) consecutive working days to qualify for short term sickness benefits. As well, insured benefits become effective the first of the month immediately following the two (2) months’ continuous service as per Articles 36.1 and 40.4

When starting employment, an employee is credited with pro rated vacation for the balance of the calendar year, but is not permitted to take until vacation she or he has completed six (6) months of continuous service.

The majority of the employees rolled over on Dec. 28 will have the six months continuous service needed to qualify to use vacation credits. Please check with management locally to confirm your continuous service date. For those who do not have the six months service, the employer does have the ability locally to grant vacation.

This applies only to MCSCS members.

The Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) MERC team continues to meet to discuss rollover entitlements for Fixed Term Youth Services Officers.

Original authorized for distribution by Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president, Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida, MCSCS MERC Chair and Glenna Caldwell, MCYS MERC Chair.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3P8

www.opseu.org

Dear OPSEU Members,

 Ten (10) OPSEU members who are Medics have headed to Haiti to give a helping hand, doing not only Canadians proud, but our proud union of OPSEU.

Brother Seamus O’Connor and president of one of our OPSEU locals has stated that he would be keeping us informed of what was going on in Haiti with our members and we look forward to regular updates from him we hope to have it posted on our region #2 web site www.opseuregion2.com and maybe even the main OPSEU web site.

 Here is Brother Seamus’ request;

 I am Seamus O’Connor President Local 207 Halton Paramedic. I am e-mailing asking if OPSEU and/or OPSEU Locals can donate to assist some of our members who have left for Haiti.

 OPSEU in the past has donated $5000 dollars to help ship an Ambulance to Haiti were one of our Medics, with his family have gone to live and help for the next year, prior to the devastation. As many of you are aware the area has just been devastated by an earthquake. Brother Grant (the brother who went with the ambulance) and his family are fine but the clinic they are staying at is being overwhelmed by the sick and injured.

 We are hoping that through OPSEU, the Regions, the Locals and our own Local 207, to organize some financial assistance for a number of our medics that have left to go to the clinic in Haiti to help. There has been a personal cost in airfare and the use of their own time. If there is a way that OPSEU members can assist to help offset some of the costs to the Medics it would be greatly appreciated. Any funds that are donated will go towards these requirements, if there is anything left over, and the local will donate to a relief fund to assist the people of Haiti in the name of OPSEU.

Thank you and In Solidarity, Seamus

 Please make cheques payable to;

 Local 207

C/O OPSEU

55 Frid St.
Suite #1
Hamilton, ON
L8P 4M3

Greetings Division

We have asked that the finial provincial sick time numbers be given to the union for review, as it is past the January 18th, 2010 date. We have also called for meeting dates, as we are sure there will need to be discussions around the numbers that are provided to the Union.

In the mean time the employer has indicated that they are holding overtime payments, following collective agreement language time lines of two months. The Union recommended that management continue paying overtime owed, at the very least at straight time, keeping the timetable for such payments as routine to prevent minimal disruption to those who work overtime.

The overtime numbers are going to have to be calculated regardless, keeping the straight time and half time separate should be a fairly easy exercise, at the very least easier than having to go back and calculating all the numbers at a later date, as we are sure that will create more issues.  

We will keep the division informed as we progress.

In Solidarity, Corrections Division Executive