Transit officials in hot seat
Mayor, councillors outraged by shift 'selling' scheme
By FRANK LANDRY, SUN MEDIA
Transit officials were given a tongue-lashing yesterday over the decades-old practice of drivers "selling" their shifts to co-workers, with one councillor calling the scheme morally wrong.
The public scolding followed a damning city auditor's report on the issue.
"This idea of trading a $25 shift for $20 seems like something you should have reacted to," Mayor Stephen Mandel told officials during a meeting of the audit committee.
But Edmonton Transit System manager Charles Stolte said he was unaware until recently that the practice was even taking place.
"It seems to me there's a moral issue," said Coun. Bryan Anderson. "The appearance of this just stinks."
Mandel said he hoped similar schemes weren't going on within other city departments, warning "it reflects on the credibility of our organization."
Stolte said his department has put the brakes on the practice, effective March 31. Drivers will still be permitted to swap shifts.
In a recent report, auditor David Wiun found it was a common practice for some drivers to "sell" hours to co-workers. The replacement driver is paid an agreed-upon rate by the original operator to take his or her shift.
Wiun said drivers have been selling shifts since at least 1985.
"Some operators have essentially sold their jobs, but continue to receive employment benefits and accumulate pension credits," states his report.
Wiun said the practice is in violation of legislation that requires the city to record and report accurate work hours for each employee.
The auditor said he couldn't find evidence of similar practices in other departments
So, you sell hours to other drivers, and keep all of your benefits, while the other driver gets paid under the table? Does Revenue Canada know about this? Sell your job and go get another one so you can collect two pensions? Maybe the union and drivers should be checked into more thoroughly, in all cities. Quite the scam if you can get away with it! Now the Ottawa strike makes more sense, are they doing the same thing?
4 comments:
This was common practice at AirCanada years ago. They were "selling" a shift, not the job.
What happens in Ottawa is not the same, actually. Drivers, based on seniority, are allowed to choose their routes every 3 months. I do believe that as one gains seniority, unofficial perquesites are not a bad thing since they have paid their dues. However, junior drivers can get hurt if the system is abused.
When all the good routes are gone, junior drivers are left with the option or either working less than a full week or taking on a couple of routes will will cause them to work very long days of split shifts.
Normally, the senior drivers choose the easy routes and it's not a huge problem. There is some abuse, however, when drivers choose routes which will keep them working more than 40 hours and 5 days per week - thus garnering them some serious overtime. The city justifiably wanted to eliminate this sort of thing because it is costing the city significant amounts of money and it is cheating the junior drivers.
Union leadership is composed of...you guessed it...senior employees who will return to the fray once their terms are up. Those drivers are not anxious to give up their ability to abuse the system. The ATU local president is one such driver.
Combine a less than ethical union leadership with really bad management of the transit system and we taxpayers and riders get shafted yet again.
OC Transpo was once the envy of many cities and now it is pretty close to being a third-world operation due to union bullying and really bad management.
At least they are doing some work. Story at Drudge about a public servant why gets over 90,000/yr for doing nothing. Something to do with a complaint he filed years ago re discrimination. Really, he does nothing, has no computer, printer, telephone or car.
MaryT - I worked with a guy like that only he didn't make 90k. This guy was one of those employees who had slipped through the cracks and by the time his manager started the procedure to fire him, it was too late (civil service). So, he had a cubicle, e-mail, and a PC but no work whatsoever. Believe it or not, this guy showed up every day and played games, ran his sports pools, ran a little business on the side, took his breaks, etc. and was paid. Personally, I could not live like that. Another fellow, who was close to retirement would stay seated on the main level all day if the elevator was out of order. He worked on the second floor but if there was no elevator, he refused to climb the stairs. Another, and this is the worst, was a fellow in his late 30s who exercised his right to leave if the washroom on our floor was out of order for any reason because his collective agreement said that washroom facilities had to be within x meters of an office. He was perfectly capable of taking the elevator to another floor but he used this one right (for disabled people, in principle) as a reason to leave. He was not disabled in any way and was, in fact, in prime health. But he was a total jerk and wondered why he was never promoted.
Oh, and all three of these people were NDP supporters. Not that there's any connection between left-wing leaning and laziness.
Post a Comment