In a decision that Windsor police Chief Al Frederick said could trigger staff reductions, a provincial arbitrator has awarded city police a new contract that includes an 11.7-per-cent wage hike over four years.
Retroactive to Jan. 1, 2011, the four-year contract will see a first-class constable with an annual salary of $80,829.08 at the end of 2010 earning $90,300 by next year.
“Close to everyone will be on the Sunshine List by next March,” said Mayor Eddie Francis, referring to the annual provincial spring listing of all public servants earning more than $100,000.
Francis, who also chairs the police board, said department brass have already been told to absorb any additional new costs from the arbitrated award into their existing budget. Frederick said the award on wages — averaging a 2.9 per cent hike per year — means he has to find an extra $1.8 million in savings.
“I’ve said from the very beginning … Windsor city operations will not subsidize (the police budget),” Francis told reporters Tuesday. He said money previously set aside for a new police contract will cover the retroactive pay hikes up until the end of 2012, but the department will have to absorb the extra costs for 2013 onward.
“It’s not easy,” Frederick said in response to where he’ll find savings in a $67-million budget he’s been instructed by the police board to maintain without any increase from local taxpayers. City council is still hoping to achieve a fifth consecutive budget with a tax freeze for 2013.
Frederick said there will be no layoffs, but that his administration will be “scrutinizing every line” of its departmental budget, searching for efficiencies. He added there could be a reduction of total officer numbers through attrition but “we’re committed to not reducing core services.”
As of the end of 2011, the department had 466 sworn officers and 146 civilian staff, a total complement of 612. Frederick said there 332 constables, most of them at the first-class rate.
In his five-page ruling dated Jan. 15 in Toronto, arbitrator William Kaplan addresses the employer’s contention that “local economic conditions” should play a role in how much is awarded.
While such arguments as ability to pay were “carefully reviewed,” the arbitrator said that “replication” — that is, duplication — of awards granted elsewhere is “the most important of all the governing criteria” in arbitrating new contracts.
“Until the province changes the rules, there’s nothing we can do,” said Francis. It means officers in Windsor, with its much cheaper cost of living and lower crime rates, are paid the same as their counterparts in Toronto. Unless there’s a change, the mayor said it means another big hit coming in 2015, the year after the OPP have already been promised by the province that it will be the best-paid force in Ontario.
“Arbitrators have decided previously … that police will be paid for what they do and not for where they live,” said Jason DeJong, president of the Windsor Police Association. “I think our membership will be satisfied.”
Francis and Frederick said they were “very pleased” with the arbitrator’s decision siding with the employer’s proposal on changing the scheduling of the criminal investigation division. A source estimated there will be “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in annual savings from being able to shorten shifts to avoid time overlaps in deploying platoons.
On another of what Francis called “key issues” to the employer, the arbitrator agreed to end post-retirement benefits, but the long-term savings won’t be as rich as those that come from PRBs being ended for the city’s CUPE workers following a bitter 101-day strike in 2009. Police employees hired up to Dec. 31, 2014, are grandfathered under the current rules, and those hired after Jan. 1, 2015, will have active member retirement benefits until the age of 75.
While costlier than hoped for, Francis said the new contract brings labour peace to Windsor’s police department.
“We’ll have some stability going through to 2014,” said DeJong. On losing the post-retirement benefits, he said the association doesn’t like to see benefits diminished for future hires but that the arbitrator’s ruling was “consistent with the rest of the province.”
The real possibility of staff reductions “remains a concern for us … we want to ensure this community is receiving adequate policing,” said DeJong.
On core function services, “we’re not going to compromise,” Frederick told reporters.
dschmidt@windsorstar.com or 519-255-5586
