Toronto backtracks on return-to-office plans for city employees as Omicron spreads anti-pipeline plan
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Toronto backtracks on return-to-office plans for city employees as Omicron spreads anti-pipeline plan
TORONTO – The city is getting back to work, again, but with a decidedly anti-pipeline message.
Toronto’s top lawyer is warning city employees that they cannot sue for back pay because their services are no longer needed.
Councillor Gord Perks is asking council to consider the city holding a “retention-only,” or “job search,” until the next general election.
At a special council work session Monday, he told Toronto’s top lawyers that they can ask city employees to show up at a special meeting on Feb. 24 to say they are available to return to work following a strike last month.
The city has about 3,000 employees.
The city has used the threat of litigation to end previous strike and lockout actions at other municipal agencies, such as hospitals and libraries.
But employees have continued calling for a return to work, and this week, council voted to extend the three-year contract for police, paramedics and TTC workers, which expired last month.
The city is in the midst of a $5.8-billion pipeline for oil from Alberta’s natural gas reserves to the Atlantic and Great Lakes.
A group of opponents says they will show up at the city’s February 24 meeting and lobby city staff to stop making the province’s move to build the Trans Mountain pipeline a priority for staff, councillors and voters.
The Anti-pipeline Coalition plans to show up in numbers,
