Mike Richards Comments on Toronto Mayor's Deal with Striking City Workers - Legal Post Blog

Published: Wednesday, 5 August 2009

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The City of Toronto and union workers have reached an agreement after 39 days of strike. The work stoppage, which halted garbage collection in the country's largest city, ended with a new 3-year deal.

Under the new contract, workers will recieve a wage increase of an aggregated 6% over the next 3 years, rather than the 9% that the workers had been seeking. The deal also phases out the controversial banked sick days by ending the practice with new hires and giving current employees the option to be bought out or to keep it. A smelly situation,

Davis Lawyer Michael Richards weighed in on the new deal. Getting concessions around the sick-day plan "was a difficult thing to do - particularly in the public sector. Often, absent a looming economic catastrophe - such as a potential shut down of operations - for an employer to make such a change, it will have to try and take the benefit apart piece by piece often over successive collective agreements."

Read the post Millers Garbage Deal, August 04, 2009, 5:22 PM by Jim Middlemiss