Over the last few years CAMH employees have witnessed a shift in working conditions. This has

included the consolidation of services, an aggressive discouraging of the use of sick days, and freezing

salaries for two of the last six years (despite generous increases in pay at executive lever). While it may

seem drastic, it’s only one example of a much larger trend towards austerity.

Public service workers in Canada are no strangers to austerity policies which prioritize

under-spending, service reduction and bloodletting benefit programs. All of this is done in the name of ‘deficit

reduction’. Take, for example, the Conservative federal government shedding over 10, 000 public sector

jobs over the past several years, only to then target public servants’ pensions.

Unions are starting to fight back. At the provincial level, OPSEU has signed a solidarity pact with

professional associations (ALOC, AMAPCEO and PEGO) to, “send a message to the government that OPS

employees will not be a scapegoat for the government’s financial situation; a crisis that we did not create.”

Solidarity between the organizations will present a stronger front in resisting concessions in bargaining.

There is organizing at the local level, as well. In Toronto, a group of OPSEU members employed at

various legal aid clinics are helping to lead the fight against austerity. Legal Aid Ontario has recently

proposed a series of mergers of offices in the GTA, which can impact services vital to disadvantaged

communities. Voices United talked to one member of OPSEU Local 525 about how they are standing up to

austerity and what lessons can be learned.

Hi, can you start with an overview of the legal clinic system in Toronto? What is its relationship to

Legal Aid Ontario, how many clinics are there, and roughly how many employees (union and non­

unionized) are in the system? 

Community Legal Clinics provide legal services to low­income people in areas not traditionally covered by

Legal Aid such as Housing, Income Security, Immigration, and Employment. Key tenets of the system are

local community board governance, meaning clinics should be run by boards which reflect the make­up of

the local community they serve, and a commitment to community development, meaning engaging in work

that leads to law reform in the interest of low ­income peoples’ social and economic rights.

There are 77 Community Legal Clinics in Ontario, 17 in the GTA, all funded by LAO. In the GTA we have 8

clinics unionized with OPSEU.

Now, could you describe the proposed cuts and mergers?

LAO is demanding that the Community Legal Clinics enter into processes to transform the model they are

working on. In the GTA some of Community Legal Clinic Directors have initiated what they call a

“Transformation Project” to develop a plan for what the new system will look like. They are proposing

merging the existing 17 clinics into 4 or 5 larger legal clinics.

How will the mergers impact jobs?

Whenever the government undertakes mergers or “rationalization” schemes in the public sector, jobs are

lost. With the Community Legal Clinic mergers it remains to be seen whether jobs will be lost solely through

attrition, or if there will be buy­outs and layoffs as well.

The other danger is that the new system will be more focused on “efficiencies”, in other words getting as

many people through the door and churning out as many cases as possible. The important community

organizing and legal and policy reform work we undertake will be de­-emphasized or lost altogether.

How will the mergers impact service for clients?

 There will be fewer clinics, so clients will generally have to travel farther to get to a clinic which will be

unaffordable for many clients who are on social assistance. The plan is that clients will be encouraged or

made to make to contact with a Community Legal Clinic by satellite office, telephone, and online, which may

present a barrier to some clients with disabilities.

What is being done to push back against this plan?

Legal clinics workers have been trying to influence things by making our voice heard within the

Transformation Project. We have also met city­wide and drafted a statement outlining our concerns.

Unionized legal clinic workers are in discussions about protecting their union recognition in a transformed

system.

What should other OPSEU members know, and how can they help?

Many of the unionized legal clinics are going into collective bargaining in the coming months. We will be

fighting for language in our collective agreements to protect our jobs going into mergers. We may be calling

on OPSEU members to mobilize and help put pressure on our employers if we come up against a wall in

this regard.

By Nancy Pridham

The collective agreement between CAMH and Local 500 governs our working conditions and allows the employees certain rights within the workplace, which might not normally be present or would not have been given to you by the employer if it were not for the Union.

VACATION ENTITLEMENTS are some of those items negotiated between the two parties at the bargaining table.  Vacation entitlements are earned, and FT employees earn vacation at a certain amount of time per month depending on how long you have been employed within CAMH.

The language regarding vacation entitlements is quite clear in the OPSEU Collective Agreement and allows for flexibility when a member is scheduling a vacation.  In some instances it may seem limiting, but it is not prohibitive and therefore the employer has latitude to give you more than the language in some instances.

One wonders why in fact a “prohibitive” approach is being taken by some managers only in some programs.  There is no language in the Collective Agreement stopping an employee from using their vacation entitlements,  nor does it state an employee must find a replacement if they want to take a vacation.  You can’t find it in the agreement; it is a phrase that some managers are using so they can save money on their budget, and not have to call in a replacement while you are taking a well-deserved break.

These managers do not seem to understand how important vacation is. It’ss necessary to enable folks to continue to do the good work of CAMH.  Everyone needs to take a break, particularly in this climate and environment, otherwise people will become ill, stressed and unable to do the job expected of them.

The other interesting catch phrase being used by some managers is “operational requirements” will not allow you to take a vacation.  Apparently the new CIS project is stopping entitlements in the Collective Agreement, and until the new CIS project goes “live” everyone must place their lives on hold.  This new catch phrase is not going to work either, as we all know that CIS training is only one day – not one week, or one month-but one day.  Move along.

The only people who might be impacted by this are those t working in IMG and who are directly responsible for the project moving forward – and even those employees are getting a vacation.

We know there are many fine managers at CAMH, who schedule vacation for employees, wish them a great time and look forward to their return.They don’t play games with their employees, or use vacation as a reward for employees they choose to.  

I often have the impression that some managers spend the weekend determining what you can remove from your employees when you arrive on Monday—while other managers are determining how to make the best situation for all the employees despite the internal chaos currently underway.

Again folks, you do not need to find a replacement for a scheduled vacation or a scheduled surgery.  Go ahead-book a vacation, you probably need one!