Decision of the Ontario Labour Relations Board ("the Board")

- Bargaining Unit Structure, Description and the Determination

of Bargaining Agents Under the Public Sector Labour

Relations Transition Act, 1997 ("the Act")

The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee recommends that the following report (December1,1998) from the Executive Director of Human Resources be received for information:

Purpose:

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the decisions of the Ontario Labour Relations Board determining the bargaining unit structure, the description of the bargaining units for the new City of Toronto and the process for determining which bargaining agents will represent the employees to be included within the bargaining units.

Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

N/A

Recommendations:

That this report be received and forwarded to Council for information.

Council Reference/Background/History:

As a result of the amalgamation on January 1, 1998 of the seven former municipalities into the new City of Toronto, it became necessary to rationalize the labour relations structure for the new City. The Act provides the framework for this process.

On June 30, 1998 CUPE Local 79 filed an application under the Act whereby it requested the Board to determine the number and descriptions of the bargaining units that would be appropriate for the new City's operations and to determine which trade union will represent the employees in those bargaining units.

The application pertained to approximately 30,000 employees, the majority of which are presently covered by over 50 separate collective agreements.

Also, the application required a determination of which employees, who are presently not represented by a bargaining agent would, as a result of determining the description of the bargaining units, be included in one of the bargaining units.

Several other issues were raised by the Unions in regards to the number and description of the bargaining units. These included a proposal by TCEU Local 416 that the Board create a separate bargaining unit for employees of the Public Health Division of the Community and Neighbourhood Services Department and merge the employees of the Toronto Parking Authority (the "TPA") into the broader City bargaining units. In addition, the Ontario Nurses Association requested the Board to create a separate bargaining unit to be comprised of Public Health Nurses only.

The largest areas of dispute with respect to the determination of the number and description of the bargaining units involved both CUPE Local 79 and the Toronto Civic Employees' Union, Local 416 who represent the overwhelming majority of the employees of the new City.

Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:

Until such time as the bargaining units and bargaining agents were determined by the Board, neither the City nor the Unions could begin the collective bargaining process with a view towards negotiating new collective agreements that would provide consistent terms and conditions of employment for the employees of the City and facilitate the City's ability to restructure in a timely fashion.

In the event the parties were unable to settle the matters in dispute, the City would have faced many months of delay in getting to the bargaining table and in the interim period would have to continue to administer over 50 separate collective agreements.

Given the scope of this undertaking and in an attempt to avoid both protracted and costly litigation, the Board directed that the parties meet with a Board representative for the purpose of attempting to narrow and where possible settle the matters in dispute. The parties then engaged in intensive discussions and negotiations in this regard.

The City's objectives throughout this process were to put in place a bargaining unit structure that would be appropriate and workable for the City's operations, would accommodate the needs of the Unions and the employees of the new City.

In this regard, an agreement was reached among the parties which, in my opinion, achieves these objectives. The agreement is sound from a labour relations perspective and balances the interests of all of the parties concerned. By decision dated November 19, 1998, the Board endorsed the terms of the settlement an Order of the Board.

Under the Act representation votes are required to determine which bargaining agent will represent employees within the various bargaining units. By decision dated November 20, 1998, the Board ordered that the representation votes be held between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the Etobicoke Civic Centre, Metro Hall, the North York Civic Centre and the Scarborough Civic Centre on December 10, 11, 14, and 15 respectively. A representation vote will not be required with respect to all of the bargaining units. The bargaining unit structure for the City agreed to by the parties and ordered by the Board is as follows:

New City of Toronto Bargaining Unit Structure

Inside Employees Unit (Full-Time)

A representation vote will be directed by the Board. The vote will be between Local 79 and Local 416.

Outside Employees Unit (Full-Time)

No representation vote will be directed by the Board. Local 416 will be appointed as the bargaining agent.

Building Trades Units

No representation votes will be directed by the Board. Employees within these bargaining units will continue to be represented by the construction/craft unions that currently represent them.

Part-time Unit - Homes for the Aged

No representation vote will be directed by the Board. Local 79 will be appointed as the bargaining agent.

Part-time Unit - Outside the Homes for the Aged

No representation vote will be directed by the Board. Local 79 will be appointed as the bargaining agent.

Recreation Casual Unit

A representation vote will be directed by the Board. The vote will be between Local 79 and Local 416. In addition, the vote will include a non-union option on the ballot.

The reason why a non-union option is to be included on the ballot is that under the Act, if more than 40 percent of the employees within the proposed bargaining unit are presently non-union, such an option must be included.

In this particular instance, the non-union component of the proposed Recreational Casual unit is well in excess of 40 percent.

With respect to the proposals of TCEU Local 416 for a public health unit and the merger of the TPA employees into the broader City units and the proposal of the Ontario Nurses Association for a public health nurses only unit, the City opposed these proposals. The City opposed the proposed health and public health nurses units was because they would result in undue fragmentation of the bargaining structure and would disconnect the public health employees from other municipal employees with whom they share a community of interest. Also, the creation of these units would be inconsistent with the operational needs of the City and the proposed units would not assist the City in meeting the numerous transitional challenges brought about by restructuring. With respect to the merger of the TPA employees into the broader City units, it was the City's position that the TPA was a separate employer created by the City of Toronto Act No. 2 and that the Act was not applicable in the circumstances in this case.

By decision dated October 20, 1998, the Board accepted the position of the City and did not order separate bargaining units for employees in the Public Health Division, or a separate bargaining unit for public health nurses or the merger of the TPA employees into the broader City units.

With respect to the construction/craft units, the City will have an ongoing collective bargaining relationship with these units that essentially flow through from the previous collective bargaining relationships that were in place with the predecessor municipalities.

The determination of the construction/craft units was solely for purposes of this application under the Act and is without prejudice to any rights the City may have, either now or in the future under any other existing or future provincial legislation including, but not limited to the Economic Development and Workplace Democracy Act, 1998.

As set out above, one of the issues to be dealt with within the context of determining the description of the various bargaining units was which employees currently excluded from any of the bargaining units would now be included in one of the units.

The City presently has over 3200 employees who are excluded from the various bargaining units. These employees include directors, managers, and supervisors.

As a result of the discussions between the parties, 139 position classifications that were excluded will now be included in either the full-time inside or recreation casual bargaining units. There are approximately 200 employees within these position classifications.

Failing this settlement, the Board would be called upon to adjudicate the matter of the inclusion in or the exclusion from the various bargaining units with respect to those position classifications that are presently excluded. The test that the Board would have applied under the Act in determining the inclusion/exclusion issue is essentially twofold. Do the employees perform managerial functions or are they employed in a confidential capacity with respect to labour relations matters?

Upon review, it was concluded that the aforementioned position/classifications would not meet this test and should therefore be included within the appropriate bargaining unit.

The aforementioned group of approximately 200 employees will as part of this settlement be afforded a one time option to elect to remain excluded from a bargaining unit or if they so choose, become a member of the applicable bargaining unit.

Lastly, the matter of the description of the bargaining unit for Fire Fighters is yet to be resolved. Hearings before the Board for the purposes of concluding this matter have been scheduled for January 22, 26 and 27, 1999. No vote for the purpose of determining the bargaining agent will be required as the City has recognized the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters Association as the bargaining agent.

Conclusions:

The resolution of these matters represents a positive step forward for the City in the restructuring process.

The parties now have the opportunity to begin the collective bargaining process with a view towards harmonizing and rationalizing the various terms and conditions of employment that presently exist which will further facilitate the City's need to eliminate many of the administrative complexities and inefficiencies that have hampered the City's restructuring efforts to date.

Contact Name:

Harold Ball, Director, Employee & Labour Relations, 392-8727.