95-0LQ BET WEE N: _268) Hearing Date of Award MIDLAND Oct. 21, 1985 RE: - and Contract Bargaining BEFORE: R. D. Joyce Arbitrator DATE:

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1 ... '..C,. ;0'.',,'~"'~- :.,,"< c',,.",' '"'.' ".,,:1.". _268) Hearing Date of Award MDLAND Oct. 21, 1985 N THE MATTER OF AN ARBTRATON 95-0LQ BET WEE N: THE CORPORATON OF THE TOWN OF MDLAND (The Employer) - and THE MDLAND POLCE ASSOCATON (The Association) RE: 1985 Contract Bargaining BEFORE: R. D. Joyce Arbitrator DATE: September 27, 1985 PLACE: Midland, Ontario APPEARANCES: For the Municipality: James T. Heather D. Herbert F. Flood For the Association: Dan Gilbert D. Allan W. Tiessen D. Chapman

2 AWARD was appointed all the matters by the Solicitor General of Ontario to hear and determine in dispute between the parties regarding their 1985 Agreement. By way of introduction, the Town of Midland is situated on Georgian Bay with a population of approximately 12,000, and covers an area of some seven square miles. There are 48 miles of road to patrol, with 4600 dwellings and close to 500 commercial or industrial establishments to serve. n addition to its substantial industrial base it is also a popular tourist area drawing approximately 100,000 summer visitors to the town. The total full-time complement of the Midland Police Force is as follows: Chief of Police Staff Sergeants Sergeants Constables Civilians Total Complement n addition, there is one part-time employee in the Civilian group. The parties- met on four occasions prior to the appointment of a conciliator and one meeting was held subsequent to the conciliation meeting. An agreement was reached with the Civilian employees. t is of interest to note that the parties to the Uniform collective agreement have found it necessary to proceed to interest arbitration only once since 1953.

3 - 2 This year, little was settled in negotiations but the Association dropped a number of proposals prior to proceeding to arbitration. At the time of the hearing there were six matters outstanding: 1. Article Reimbursement for course costs. 2. Article Time off for compulsory exams. 3. Pension Plan - OMERS Type 1 supplementary benefit. 4. Pension Plan - OMERS Type supplementary benefit. 5. Salaries - NCO Wage differentials. 6. Salaries - General ncrease. Before dealing w~th the specific matters in dispute certain general comments may be helpful. My starting point in this review is to attempt to meet what surely must be the primary objective of interest arbitration, that being to design a package which emulates to the greatest degree possible that which the parties would have reached in free collective bargaining. n doing so accept the proposition that police should be compared to police. This comparison must necessarily include factors such as population of the municipality, manning of the forces, the location of the forces, the particular situations in which the individual forces may operate, and other unique factors. t is of course simply not possible to ignore the general economic conditions in the community and it is necessary at times to delicately balance the interests of the Employer (who is not permitted to lock out) with the requirement to be fair to those who are not permitted to participate in the full scope of free collective bargaining (including strike act~on), one of the measures of fairness being comparisons of compensation paid by other municipalities to their police officers who do the same work as these officers. n making comparisons and in designing the award, it is of course necessary to consider the impact on total compensation rather than simply to review salary comparisons and increases. now turn to the specific proposals.

4 - 3 Proposed Article Reimbursement for Course Costs This would be a new provision, requiring the Employer to pay tuition fees for successfully completed approved academic courses. The proposal does not give any indication as to which courses of study would be subject to approval, but the Association's presentation indicates that the Employer would be expected to pay for any post-secondary Association's members elected to undertake. course which the t is a fact that many companies in the private sector have policies covering this subject, but it is normal that there would be certain restrictions on the courses to be approved, with the usual requirement being that the approved undertaking would or could serve to advance the employee within that particular company. t would appear that the Town of Midland does not have a general policy permitting payment for post-secondary courses. The Association acknowledged that the provision is found in few police contracts but argued, without supporting data, that this was because many municipalities policy. provide this benefit as a matter of Because a benefit of this nature is better if implemented as a matter of general policy applicable to all employees of the Municipality, and because of the lack of definition, decline to award this proposal. would encourage the Employer to develop and implement a policy covering this subject and make it available to all employees. Failing this, should the Association elect to attempt to obtain this benefit as a provision in a future contract, it is my suggestion that it is necessary for the Association to clarify the types of courses which would be subject to the Chief's approval.

5 . ~' " ' - 4 Proposed Article Time Off for Qualifying Exams Required by Department The proposal would grant a full tour of duty to those required to write examinations related to their police duties. Should an examination be written on a scheduled day off, overtime rates would be paid. The Employer takes the position that the employee is being paid an annual salary and hence payment is already being made for the time spent writing exams, which exams are in fact for the benefit of the employee~ The Association takes the position that the exams are for the benefit of the Employer and suggests that time off immediately prior to the examination is required for exam preparation. The example was given of an officer who was scheduled to take a tour of duty from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., then was required to write an examination that day. The Association did not provide any supporting data to show that this provision was included in other collective agreements. n the absence of supporting data and in the belief that both the position of the Association and the position of the Employer on this subject are extreme, believe that this issue is better left for future discussion between the parties so that specific situations may be resolved. For example, it doesn't make sense that an officer should be required to take a night tour of duty immediately prior to writing an examination. On the other hand, fail to understand why an officer would be given a day off because he was required to write an examination during his regularly scheduled hours. n another situation it would appear to make sense that the Employer would be required to pay overtime rates to an officer who writes a breathalizer test on his scheduled day off, while on the other hand overtime payment would not be appropriate for an officer who writes a promotional exam. Other variations suggest individual review is required.

6 Because the proposal is too broad, was not supported by reference to other police contracts and because believe the subject can best be handled by reviewing specific instances, decline to award this proposal. Pension Plan - OMERS - Type Supplementary Plan - Type Supplementary Plan The Type supplementary benefit proposal would proviae for full past service credits for all Association members of the force. Acceptance of the proposal would impact on two members. One member would receive approximately nine months' additional credits while the other member would benefit from more than six years' additional service recognition. The other members of the force have full service recognition, having commenced employment since the introduction of OMERS in The approximate cost of granting additional past service benefits for the two employees would be: Lump sum cost $34, Annual amortized cost 4, Total amortized cost 61, The Employer resists this proposal taking the position that service prior to 1963 is not a proper subject for arbitration in t.urges further that additional past service recognition could not properly be confined to members of the police force and to grant the benefit to all employees of the Town of Midland would mean that a total of six employees would benefit at a total cost to the town of: Lump sum cost $142, Annual amortized cost 16, Total amortized cost 249,315.00

7 n One cannot look at one proposed retirement plan improvement in isolation from other proposed pension improvements, just as one cannot look at the cost of any improvement in isolation from the impact on total compensation. Hence we now turn to the proposal for the introduction of an early retirement provision with the permanent partial disability rider. The past service cost of introducing the Type OMERSsupplementary benefit for members of the police force would be: Lump sum cost $13, Annual amortized cost 1, Total amortized cost 23, The future service cost would be.67% of covered salary. The Type OMERS early retirement provision is now available only to police officers and firefighters. My assessment of the two proposals follows: The request for an expansion of past service recognition affects only two members of the force but at a considerable cost. This is a subject that could have been reviewed at each negotiations over the past several years and perhaps minor improvements could have been attained year by year, finally resulting in full recognition of past service. To come to arbitration in 1985 to request that adjustments be made for years prior to 1963 is in my view inappropriate. As stated at the outset of this award, the primary objective of interest arbitration is to emulate what could reasonably be expected to be negotiated in free collective bargaining. do not know whether pre-1963 benefits were a subject for bargaining in past negotiations, but in any event they were not attained and for me to impose this credit for past service on the Employer would in my view be a violation of the key objective of interest arbitration.

8 be supplementary Pay n- - 7 n the case of the Type OMERS early retirement benefit with the permanent partial disability rider, it is my view that the time has come for this provision to be considered in the category of benefit that would attained in free collective bargaining. The reasons why officers should be allowed to retire early are many, and almost half the forces in Ontario provide such a benefit. n terms of numbers this is over 90% of the police officers in municipalities. n summary, decline to award the request for the Type OMERS benefit. award the request of the Association for inclusion of the Type OMERS supplementary benefit including the permanent partial disability rider. This improvement as soon as possible after the date of this award. is to be introduced Differentials - Sergeant and Staff Sergeant The 1984 salary for a Town of Midland Constable was $29,640. The salary for a Sergeant was $30,767., resulting in a salary spread of $1,127 and a differential of 3.8%. Statistics presented by the Association demonstrated that the current Midland differential is considerably below that of other municipalities. Depending on the comparison employed the average differential of the other communites range from 5.69% to 7.52%. Probably the most reasonable' comparison would be between 5.92% and 6.41%. n the case of Staff Sergeants the 1984 salary was $31,919. This compares with the Sergeant's salary of $30,767., giving a salary spread of $1,152. and a differential of 3.7%. Community comparisons show that the average differential ranges from 5.42% to 6.82% with the most reasonable comparison ranging from 5.64% to 5.92%.

9 - 8 readily agree with the Employer's position that this subject is best left for bargaining between the parties. That process, however, has not resulted in an agreement and it is clear to me that differentials of 3.8% in the case of Sergeants and 3.7% in the case of Staff Sergeants are simply not adequate. While it is true that am not qualified to determine the differentials with precision in the absence of a job evaluation program that and/or a full understanding of the tasks, my experience permits me to say an adjustment is clearly in order and further study is required. award that the differential for Sergeants be adjusted to five percent for (5%) of the 1985 salary for the rank of Corporal and that the differential Staff Sergeants be adjusted to five percent (5%) of the 1985 salary for the rank of Sergeant. These adjustments are to be made effective from November 1, n addition, recommend that the parties meet prior to the 1986 negotiations in an attempt to reach agreement on the proper differential to be recognized in future collective agreements. Salaries - General ncrease The 1984 salary for the rank of 1st Class Constable in the Town of Midland was $29,640. The Association presented statistics showing this salary to be $1,000 below the average paid to Constables in nine jurisdictions in Simcoe County. A second comparison showed the Midland salary to be the lowest of seven Ontario communities with populations ranging from 11,000 to 13,000. Another comparison with all of Ontario forces shows Midland to be the lowest in Ontario for communities of 12,000 and above. While ranking comparisons can be misleading for a variety of reasons including the fact that the annual dollar disparity may be relatively small between the near-low and the average, it is clear that the Midland force is presently at the lower end of the scale, whatever the comparison.

10 proposal the July - 9 To correct or partially correct the disparities revealed in the comparisons the Association proposed an increase of 9% but suggested staged revisions such as 3% January 1, 1985, 3% July 1, 1985 and 3% September 1, This would result in an annualized 1985 increase of 5.7% if compounded. The ongoing increased cost would, however, be 9.27%. The ultimate salary impact is surely the only legitimate calculation. To save "x%" for one year by staging salary increases longer term actual cost is "y". does not detract from the reality that the The Employer took the position that a salary increase of 5% would be appropriate provided there were no other cost elements in the settlement wage settlements to the time of the hearing, in the public sector in Midland, have been as follows: (a) Where access to arbitration exists: (i) Midland Professional Firefighters Association Wages January 1, % January 1, % Plus on the last contract day of 1985 a sum of $ and on last contract day of 1986 a sum of $ (ii) Midland Police Association (Civilian) -Wages January 1, /2% 1, /2% (compounded) September 1, /2% (compounded) January 1, % Plus a 1-1/2% wage catch-up..

11 , ~'.- > - 10 (b) Where free collective bargaining exists: O.P.S.E.U. Public Works April 1, % March 31, 1986 $ April 1, % March 31, 1987 $ Parks and Arena April 1, % March 31, 1986 $ April 1, % March 31, 1987 $ Office and Technical April 1, % - March 31, 1986 $ April 1, % March 31, $ Looking at broader and exterior factors the cost of living index has been increasing at a rate of between 3% and 4% in Labour Canada reports second quarter 1985 major collective agreement wage settlements to be averaging 3-.5%, up slightly from the first quarter average of 3.2%. The major public service settlements averaged 3.6% and 3.5% respectively.. during the first and second quarters Police settlements in 1985 in Ontario have ranged broadly. There are a number of 4% or 5% settlements, but there are also quite a number of staggered settlements providing ultimate increases in excess of 5%. A number of these settlements resulted from two-year agreements and anticipate that future settlements will be between 4% and 5%.

12 impact it settlement September - 11 The freely negotiated settlement arrived at between the Employer and the Civilian group was a compounded 2-1/2% + 2-1/2% + 2-1/2%. The 1985 cost of this settlement will be 4.83% but the much more important ongoing impact will be 7.69%. This settlement is substantially higher than the settlements made with other Town of Midland groups and is much higher than the average settlement in Ontario but there is no reason that know of why should be ignored and am reluctant to narrow the differential between the Uniform and Civilian groups. Further, during my review reached the conclusion that wished to improve the position of the Midland force relative to other comparable forces, and most certainly an ongoing of 7.69% would contribute to that objective. have considered the total compensation cost implications of the pension and wage differential changes have awarded, taking into account that in my view those changes are overdue, and taking into account the relative salary ranking of the Midland force with comparable groups, have concluded that the wage award should not be less than that received by the Civilian group. award that salaries be adjusted as follows: January 1, /2% July 1, /2% (compounded) 1, /2% (compounded) shall remain seized of this matter to the extent necessary to resolve any problems which may arise from the implementation of this award. Dated at Toronto, Ontario, thise2 /~ day of~, ~ Arbitrator