Globe reports: Toronto Civic Workers keep banking sick time
An article in the Globe and Mail states that the City of Toronto's deal with civic workers allows existing workers to continue banking and cashing out sick days: The tentative deal reached earlier this week would allow people already working for the city to bank 18 sick days a year and cash them out as the equivalent of six months pay at retirement. Earlier reports had said that the deal allowed workers to either get a payout now or later, with the program of accumulating days ending.
If this report is true, why was there a strike?
8 comments:
Wow, Mister Anchovy...you've got me hooked and hanging by the seat of my pants. What the heck is going on? Keep us posted if you find out anything!!!!
I think I'd better phone Anita...she can be a real "go-to" for urban info...
You've got me all curious and worried...I hope you find out stuff. I'll let you know if Anita knows anything...
Anita reminded me why there was a strike and why the strike was so long.
I had forgotten that with every public service strike...the city holds out until it saves enough money in order to cover the costs of what the workers want. I was very well aware of this action but had momentarily forgotten about that.
One of Anitia's friends had written an article in "Now Magazine" about this...too...about a month ago.
p.s. I should add that although Anita and I agree on much things about unions and management...she and I don't agree on the value of bankable sick days. We've tried to see each others side and argument but haven't been able to resolve our differences of opinion regarding the controversial initiative.
...the city holds out until it saves enough money in order to cover the costs of what the workers want...
I'd be interested in seeing some calculations on that. We'd have to know what the costs are involved in setting up all those temporary dump sites as well as the overtime costs of the clean-up. I would be surprised if any of the folks running the city were sophisticated enough to figure all that out in advance and plan a strike length accordingly. I just haven't seen any evidence that any of them can plan anywhere near that well.
ps don't worry Candy, you and I are in no danger of agreeing about bankable sick days either.
This isn't a new invention that recent city management would have worked out. It doesn't take savvy to rip people off...it takes greed. This isn't a reflection of some evil genius program. It's just a way to budget a city. This is a time honored spectacle to take our tax payer dollars. In some circles it would be called fraud.
The city and management and the budget just made a petty good haul. I calculate it must be close to 60,000,000.
I'm terrible at math...but some have calculated that the city may save up to $4 billion.
Don't the parks get cleaned up when the maintenaince workers return to work anyways?
Do you think after the garbage is picked up by the city maintenance workers our tax dollars will be returned to us? $4 billion dollars would be a nice pay out to the citizens. There is no way that the cost of the strike will compare to the profits the city budget just made the past few weeks.
those managers love a good bit of show business...they'll never give us that money back.
Mind you...if the city spends it on bike paths and bridges and fixing some infrastucture...amybe the spectacle would have been worth it.
In the meantime...in the city's selfish greed to make profit and save the money of wages etc...kids didn't have pools or summer classes.
Now if we could just come up with an incentive initiative to curb the greed of the bosses and politicians (just like the incentive initiative of bankable sick days) ...we might find ourselves proud of a compassionate urban center.
Ah...I've been looking around...here is one figure:
"Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong thinks the city has saved about $28 million a week on wages since the strike began, but couldn't confirm that with officials."
http://www.thestar.com/Article/660241
This guy is a PC party guy so that is just a polite word for snake...so I don't believe a word he says...but I'm willing to use his guess at wages for a minute. If Minnan-Wong is correct about $28 mil a week well that means the city has saved a LOT of money...
The average direct cost of employee absenteeism in Canada is now $3,550 per employee per year...according to Watson Wyatt.
p.p.s. I am sorry both you and Anita disagree with the concepts surrounding initiatives to avoid absenteeism. I am a strong believer in fighting the drop of morale and productivity in the workplace because of absenteeism.
In the same way...I believe in tax benefits to people who donate to charity encourage people to be generous and responsible with their compassion. I believe that as much as we'd like to think people are kind and charitable...the problem is the more power and money they get...the more coruption tends to follow. By offering wealthy people tax deductions if they donate to charity helps them be inspired to be compassionate.
I wish people were compassionate on their own once they make money...but having tax benefits aids in more donations.
In this way I see initiatives to fight absenteeism as a valuable experiment and incentive.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FXS/is_9_82/ai_107835627/
http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/24/33/85.html
http://www.citizeneconomists.com/blogs/2008/10/30/how-can-employers-limit-the-cost-of-absenteeism-an-international-look/
http://www.gurulink.ca/srv.asp?a=_r_resources_talent_absenteeism
"This is a time honored spectacle to take our tax payer dollars. In some circles it would be called fraud." Exactly. The taxpayers are the ones who lost. They are going to pay for the strike. Still, all these reports confuse me. Almost every article I read claims something (at least a little) different. Best, Lorne.
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