Contracting out Waterloo, Ont. paramedics not breach of agreement

An Ontario municipality did not breach its collective agreement when it contracted outside paramedics to work a special event without telling its union or asking its own paramedics to work the event, an arbitrator has ruled.

Every year, thousands of people attend a street party in Waterloo, Ont. to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Many of the celebrants are students from the two universities in the area. Unsurprisingly, many get sick or injured during the festivities and require medical attention.

In 2018, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo estimated that 22,000 people would attend the St. Patrick’s Day event, and the paramedic service decided that it would be too much for its regular paramedic and ambulance contingent to handle on its own. It decided to contract out four ambulances and paramedic crews from two other municipalities. The contracted paramedics worked for 12 hours on March 17 and were based within a perimeter that had been established for the St. Patrick’s Day event.

The contracted paramedics were assigned only to the event and their ambulances were parked in a staging area to which anyone needing medical attention would be brought on foot by local paramedics who moved through the event as part of a crowd response team. If necessary, the ambulances would then transport the patient to a hospital. The contractors understood that they were dedicated to the event and not available to take calls outside the perimeter.

The union for Waterloo’s paramedics filed a grievance, saying that it wasn’t consulted about the contracting-out and employees in the bargaining unit weren’t offered the work before outside workers were brought in. It pointed to the collective agreement, which prohibited supervisors, managers, and “non-bargaining unit persons” from working on any jobs included in the bargaining unit, and also stipulated that “no permanent employee shall be laid off from work as a result of contracting out present work or services of a kind presently performed by its employees.”

In addition, the collective agreement included a clause about special events — defined as events where a paramedic or crew is dedicated solely to the event — in its wages and premiums section that said part-time paramedics would be scheduled for all special events to avoid overtime where possible, followed by full-timers if availability of the former was exhausted.

The arbitrator noted that the collective agreement banned “non-bargaining unit persons” from working on jobs included in the bargaining unit, but permitted contracting out work, as this was considered in the provision banning layoffs from such work. In this case, the St. Patrick’s Day event was a special event that wasn’t included as a job in the bargaining unit, said the arbitrator, noting that there were paramedics on foot and ambulances stationed in a staging area, all dedicated solely to the event. This wasn’t normal deployment.

Although the union argued that the collective agreement required the use of bargaining unit staff for special events through the requirement that part-time paramedics be scheduled for them, that provision was part of the wages and premiums section that set the rates for special events and allowed part-time employees to absorb the extra workload of a special event without paying overtime rates for full-time employees. It wasn’t a prohibition on contracting out work for special events, the arbitrator said.

The arbitrator agreed with the union that not discussing its need for extra resources for the 2018 St. Patrick’s Day event with the union in advance may not have been helpful for good labour relations, but the collective agreement had no obligation to discuss contracting out with the union unless it would result in layoffs. As a result, the municipality had the right to contract outside paramedics to work the special event, said the arbitrator in dismissing the grievance.