Message to Relief Deputy Sheriffs

Dear Relief and Part-time Deputy Sheriff members,

Re: Policy Grievance on Overtime

As you may be aware, your union filed a policy grievance relating to the change in practice to how Relief Deputy Sheriff’s earn overtime. Your employer had changed their practice in the fall of 2020, stating:

“Effective October 11 relief staff will no longer earn OT after 7 hours a day as has been the practice in the past. Going forward from that date, OT will be earned after relief staff have worked in excess of 35 hours per week, inclusive of the weekend. This will not affect full-time staff. This change is linked to the changes to the Transport section going to 12 hours shifts and is a budgetary mitigation step as well.”

Our policy grievance was referred to adjudication in late November 2020. A two-day hearing occurred with Adjudicator Susan Ashley on September 23rd, 2021. On December 3rd, 2021, Adjudicator Ashley issued her ruling.

Ultimately, we were not successful in our argument relating to the policy grievance but, we were successful in our argument over estoppel, which means the employer stopped calculating overtime as outlined above until the collective agreement expires.

Since the Civil Service Master Agreement expired March 31st, 2021, the employer has reverted back to the practice outlined above. After lengthy negotiations, the union and employer have come to an understanding that if anything is agreed to at the table as it relates to compensation for overtime for relief employees, this will be backdated to March 31st, 2021, for Deputy Sheriffs.

In the interim, your employer has also been working on reviewing each relief employees time to gather who is entitled to retroactive pay and how much. We are pleased to advise that those who are eligible for retroactivity will receive any retroactive overtime to them on or before the June 30th, 2022 pay period. Each relief employee who has been identified as receiving retroactivity is going to receive notice from the employer.

We would like to extend our thanks to Kathrine Leights, your Human Resources Business Partner with the Public Service Commission (PSC) for her efforts on this file.

Should you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Dustin Rioux, Employee Relations Officer.