The city misinformed the public about one of the key scheduling issues during Ottawa's 51-day transit strike, say critics of how work stoppage was handled.
Shortly before the threat of back-to-work legislation brought an end to the two-month strike, city officials requested the federal government change the rules of work and rest governing OC Transpo drivers.
The city said the number of consecutive hours OC Transpo staff can work under current regulations is a safety issue.
“Of the 60,000 commercial transportation companies in Canada, only Ottawa, Gatineau and Windsor are exempt from safety rules that limit the amount of time someone can work without sleep,” reads a Jan. 23 post on Mayor Larry O’Brien’s blog.
Turns out, that’s wrong.
Though it’s true Ottawa, Gatineau and Windsor are the only transit companies under federal jurisdiction exempt from work-and-rest rules, most other companies in Ontario – which fall under provincial jurisdiction – are also exempt.
“This is not just an exemption here in Ottawa – it’s an exemption in other communities right across the country,” says Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar.
Dewar says rules about mandatory rest periods are meant for long-haul drivers on monotonous routes. Those rules require a minimum of eight hours uninterrupted sleep within a 24-hour period and one day off every two weeks.
Because municipal transit drivers mainly work split shifts in their own city, where they can go home and rest between shifts, and because their work is much more varied than that of the typical long-haul truck driver, they have been exempt from those rules.
“With respect, I think the city was looking to deal with a scheduling problem,” Dewar says. Specifically, Dewar thinks the city wanted to contain overtime costs.
“They never before addressed the work-and-rest rules issue. This was something that came up during the contract debacle.”
Dewar is referring to Amalgamated Transit Union local 279’s contract, which came up for negotiation in March 2008. Almost a year later, the union still doesn’t have a contract.
Wages, benefits and contracting out work were key issues for both sides from the beginning and continue to be important.
About nine months into negotiations, the city broached the issue of scheduling.
Two weeks after that, ATU 279 went on strike. About a month into the strike, the city announced it would hire a “fact-finder” to provide more details about the scheduling issue.
The strike has been described by union members as an end-of-the-tether move to protect their current scheduling system – confirmed many times over to be quite similar, if not identical, to scheduling systems used by other transit companies across the country.
It’s a system the city and union built together, brick by brick, through contract talks in the late '90s. It’s a system they designed as a solution – after a former employee’s shooting rampage ignited awareness that workers’ morale was at an extreme low.
These are some of the reasons why experts like Transport 2000 president David Jeanes wonder if the city brought the scheduling issue to the bargaining table out of concern for public safety.
“If there was a safety issue, did they only find out about it during the strike? Why wasn’t it on the table before?” asks Jeanes.
Jeanes says he wonders why – if OC Transpo scheduling is dangerous under the exemption – reports about accidents directly related to fatigue haven’t been made public.
“Say there is a problem: what is the problem, what is the risk, what are the solutions?” he says.
Coun. Alex Cullen, chair of the transit committee, declined to provide specific examples of how scheduling under the current system has led to more accidents. He says the evidence that supports their request includes examples of drivers accumulating overtime.
“One of the examples is a man who booked 22 hours in a 24 hour day. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s an example of how the system can be used and abused,” he says.
Cullen added that although part of the motivation behind reversing the exemption is public safety, cutting overtime costs is also a factor.
He says some drivers increased their salaries to $100,000 by working overtime, double the average annual salary.
Union president André Cornellier says he disciplined fellow employees who were exploiting the system as soon as management brought the issue to his attention in April of last year. He agrees working 22 hours straight isn’t safe and shouldn’t happen but also says that’s not the norm.
A special memorandum presented to the transit committee on Feb. 20, 2008 – about a month before contract talks with the union began – shows the city faced a driver shortage that would have increased demand for overtime.
“The reasons for the recent service problems can be summarized as staff shortages and breakdown caused by growth,” read the minutes. “…Accordingly, the driver shortage was not due to absenteeism of employees, but rather to some drivers’ refusal to work overtime…”
No matter what the city’s motives are in requesting a change, Cullen says it will consult the public before any change is made.
Federal Transport Minister John Baird says his department will “collect the facts” about work-and-rest rules before deciding to change the policy. The process will take several months.
The issue will also be on the table during the arbitration process. A decision isn’t expected until this summer, but it could be costly for the city.