By Talar Stockton | Yukon News
The Yukon Employees’ Union has filed a policy grievance with the City of Whitehorse for the use of contract staff, who the union say are getting paid nearly double what city staff are.
The City of Whitehorse has been using external contractors to help issue building permits since a backlog last summer left builders waiting months to obtain a permit.
In fact, the continued use of external labour to prevent future backlogs was a recommendation issued from the city’s Housing and Land Development Advisory Committee last September.
But now, the Yukon Employees’ Union is raising concerns with the city’s use of contract labour. According to YEU spokesperson Rafsan Jugol, the union filed a policy grievance against the city on June 13.
YEU president Justin Lemphers appeared before city council as a delegate on Aug. 4.
“The issue that we’ve got is that, from the union point of view, the contracting out of bargaining unit work is a violation of the collective agreement,” Lemphers said.
“We would be very interested in having a conversation with the city administration about this continuous breach of the collective agreement and ensuring that the precept of equal pay for work of equal value is respected.”
This grievance could escalate to arbitration, Jugol said.
“The union is open to reaching a resolution with the employer that protects the interests of Whitehorse municipal workers who keep the City running,” Jugol wrote in an email to the News on Aug. 6.
The YEU shared an invoice for one of the city’s contractors with the News. The invoice showed a building official located in Kelowna was paid $75 an hour for their labour, amounting to a pay-out of $4,488.75 for their hours worked with GST.
Another contract signed by the City for a contractor from Clearwater, B.C., shows the hourly rate to $90, as well reimbursement for required travel costs to and from Whitehorse, up to $1,800 per round trip. The contractor also would receive accommodation from the City while in Whitehorse for work, per the contract.
The City did not confirm how much contractors were paid on the basis that the information is proprietary. However, they did confirm that there are currently three different firms the City contracts labour to on an as-needed basis.
City spokesperson Guin Lalena said the staff building officials were paid $45.65 to $59.84 hourly, alongside a “comprehensive benefits package.” Lalena said there are currently six building full time official positions within the City of Whitehorse, including two vacancies.
“The City continues to recruit for vacant positions,” wrote Lalena in an Aug. 6 email to the News.
“When those positions are filled, the use of contract services is expected to be reduced,” she wrote, “however, to ensure that the City can continue to maintain service-levels, the City may continue use contract services as surge protection, when people go on holidays or on an as-needed basis where City staff need external expertise on complex files.”
Lemphers said the issue was a taxpayer concern as well.
“Are we paying above and beyond what we should, because the work is going from staff to contractors, and there’s an inflated price that’s being paid?” Lemphers said.
“Are we actually as citizens and residents getting good value for our money, or are we paying for costs that have been budgeted or perhaps exceeded budgets?”
Lemphers said the union has tried to resolve this with the city to no avail.
“The union had reached out to the city management a few times this spring to have different iterations of this conversation,” Lemphers told council. “It wasn’t fruitful.”
He said the issue is going to arbitration. However, he said the path to arbitration is a “process.”
“I’m here as a… as a, to let folks know that if there’s a potential or appetite to take a detour on the road to arbitration, then we’re still open to that conversation,” Lemphers said.
Jugol wrote that with the City paying external contractors nearly double for the same labour as unionized city staff, “public dollars are being sent to private for-profit agencies outside the territory.”
“Contracting out middle-class jobs away from the Yukon outside the territory is not the solution,” Jugol wrote.
