By Lindsey Cole
The Oshawa Express
The lines are drawn and the picketers
are out.
As one of 55 full-time Serco
DriveTest locations across the province,
Oshawa’s driving examiners are currently
outside the John Street location picketing
as of The Oshawa Express’ deadline.
The United Steelworkers local 9511
was unable to reach an agreement with
employer Serco DES Inc., which resulted
in most workers across the province
walking off the job Friday.
In Oshawa, Monday was the first day
of official picketing, says DriveTest
examiner Terry Peck as he stands with
about six others outside the DriveTest
centre.
There are currently seven examiners
who conduct road tests at the Oshawa
centre, plus employees who do written
tests who work inside, explains Peck.
Usually each road test examiner conducts
around 15 tests a day, he says. While the strike is on, the centre
is closed, meaning no one is able to
do a test.
Paul Dalglish, the managing
director of Serco DriveTest, agrees
with Peck about the job situation at
the Oshawa location.
He says job security is a big issue
that has two main components.
“We’d obviously like to get it settled
as quick as possible. From our
perspective there’s really two parts
to that.”
The first is seasonal business.
The summer months are usually
busy with July bringing in more people
for testing. When things get quiet
in February the workload decreases
by 40 per cent, which causes some
layoffs but not a large
number, he says.“We need a lot of
flexibility to respond to
that. The union, what
they were asking for we
couldn’t meet,” he
explains.
The other aspect
Dalglish says is being
discussed is the role of
supervisors in the centre.
At large DriveTest centres
supervisors normally
perform only supervisory
tasks, whereas at
some smaller operations
some supervisors take
on more roles.
This is a
problem, the union
states, as supervisors
should only conduct
supervisory duties.
“It doesn’t make
sense,” Dalglish
says.“We’re not running
a sweat shop
here.”
Dalglish says the
wage for workers
ranges from $20 to
$23.50 an hour and
employees typically
work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Serco is a private
organization that
signed a 10-year deal
with the Ontario government
to run the
driving tests in 2003.
No date has been set for talks to
resume.
The strike is affecting 550 workers
across the province.
Because of the strike the
province’s Ministry of
Transportation has extended the
licences of those who are not able to
take a driving test while employees
continue to picket.
The province has said that anyone
who needs to take a road test or
written examination can continue to
drive with their existing certificate.
Throughout North America,
police departments have also been
notified of the strike just in case
some drivers are stopped with
expired licences.
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