DURHAM REGION, ON – Participation House Durham and Community Living Ajax-Pickering and Whitby (CL-APW) are among a handful of developmental service agencies in Ontario refusing to play by the rules for paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in provincially funded wage increases to frontline workers.
Last year $180 million was earmarked by the Ministry of Community and Social Services to allow agencies like CL-APW and Participation House Durham to raise frontline employees’ pay.
The funding for “wage enhancements” for workers was intended to bring greater stability to Ontario’s developmental services. As the government acknowledged, the money would ultimately benefit the people who rely on community living services by allowing agencies to reduce staff turnover, attract and keep qualified employees, and increase continuity of care for vulnerable people.
“The need to improve services for people with developmental disabilities was behind the decision by government to raise wages for frontline workers,” said Jacqui Lancaster, national representative with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). CUPE represents workers at both CL-APW and Participation House Durham.
“But by refusing to follow the rules for wage enhancements for their employees, a few agencies are undermining the government’s strategy for improving the quality and consistency of services for people with developmental disabilities.”
Lancaster points out that most community living agencies in Ontario have already raised the wages of their frontline workers in line with government directives. But other agencies, including the two in Durham, have distributed the money in ways that don’t meet the objectives of the wage enhancement or the rules for how it should be applied:
1. Instead of offering a flat-rate wage increase to employees, Participation House Durham is issuing lump sum payments to workers based on whether they are full-time or part-time, employed as casuals or working overnight shifts. This approach is fraught with problems, not least of which is that it short-changes some workers and overpays others.
“Workers at Participation House Durham are baffled by their employer’s approach to wage enhancements,” said Lancaster. “Community living organizations are represented by OASIS, the network of Ontario Agencies Supporting Individuals with Special Needs; the executive director of Participation House Durham is an OASIS vice-president. Of all people, she should know how to distribute these pay increases. Why won’t this agency?”
2. Community Living Ajax-Pickering and Whitby received a total of $360,000 for wage enhancements for approximately 115 frontline workers. However, instead of splitting the money to improve wage rates for both full- and part-time workers, the agency used the bulk of the money to meet old pay equity obligations.
Only $160,000 remains to fund pay increases for both groups of workers. From the reduced amount, CL-APW is offering its workers a meagre 25¢ per hour increase and an equally unacceptable ‘stipend’ next year.
“Workers in developmental services are predominantly women, earning low wages in a precarious sector that offers few full-time, secure jobs.
“It’s unconscionable that some agencies are willing to deprive them of money that was meant to improve life for them and for the people they support,” said Lancaster.
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For more information, please contact:
Jacqui Lancaster, CUPE National Representative, 905-242-7654
Mary Unan, CUPE Communications Representative, cell 647-390-9838
