CUPE president confident bylaw restructure will be undone

MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER michael@kamloopsthisweek.com

The union representing former City of Kamloops bylaw officers feels confident the arbitration ruling expected to be released this month will come down in its favour.

“We think we’re going to win and we think we’re going to win strongly,” CUPE 900 president Ken Davis told KTW

He said he expects the arbitrator will impose the orders requested by the union and suggest the two sides come together to reach a financial resolution.

The City of Kamloops and CUPE Local 900 went to arbitration at the end of March 2022 amidst a dispute over restructuring of the city’s bylaws department.

The union believes the city infringed on the rights of city bylaws officers and did not have the right, under the collective agreement, to unilaterally make the decision to change the structure of the department, which impacted most bylaw officers.

CUPE asked the arbitrator to order the new community services officer (CSO) program cancelled and revert to the original structure, which could be costly to city taxpayers. The union is also requesting a letter from the city acknowledging it breached the collective agreement and that former employees be returned to their positions and be given backpay for the years lost. Davis said the union will also seek damages, in the event the union wins this decision.

The municipality revamped the department to have officers more focused on street issues. Part of the revamp includes a physical fitness test that employees must complete within a specified time.

The city has said the focus of bylaws officers has changed, with scope previously on dog and parking issues shifted toward addressing social issues, low-level crime, guarding police jail cells and more. The city has said the union agreement has clauses that anticipate work changes when the organization is required to accommodate new workloads.

Davis told KTW one reason the union is confident in its case is their stance the job did not fundamentally change when the new CSO position was brought in, noting bylaw officers had always dealt with social issues as part of their duties. He said if the city wanted to make changes to the position and reprioritize duties to focus more on social issues and outreach work, it could have still accomplished that within the collective agreement.

“Our position is this was ultimately a mass termination in the guise of a restructure,” Davis said.

He said merging bylaws with custodial guards was the biggest change to the position, and one the union fought against.

“We don’t see those two positions as being easily combined. They are on very different rotational schedules — they’re very different jobs,” Davis said, adding union members did not want to work that position.

Merging the two departments was one of numerous had with the changes.

Davis told KTW arbitration may likely have been avoided if the city had been willing to keep the jobs separate, exempt existing bylaw officers from having to complete the fitness test and implement a schedule based on seniority rather than the rotating, three-shift schedule that was implemented.

He said the union felt their members should not be subject to a physical fitness test for a job they were already doing.

Davis said there were 32 officers before the city implemented the CSO program. He said currently, only about five people who served under the former department remain, though 17 people between bylaw and custodial guard initially pursued the CSO program.

“The changes made by the employer had a deep impact on the lives of our members, some of which had been working there for over 30 years. Many were put in a position of taking significant pay cuts, some were forced into early retirement and some left the city altogether with very little to show for their years of dedicated service — it’s truly a shame,” Davis said.