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TorontoThere is nothing fair and equitable in the Ontario governments move to eliminate tribunals that rule on human rights complaints, pay equity claims, labour disputes and appeals by injured workers and replace them with a single “mega-panel” of adjudicators hand-picked by Tories, says Sid Ryan the Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

The consolidation of 10-boards and tribunals by Tories is another way of diluting workers rights and human rights adds Ryan, who is concerned that creating a mega-bureaucracy will gum-up the system further and that the Tory-selected adjudicators wont have the expertise or the unbiased distance from government to deal with complicated and diverse issues such as pay equity and injured workers appeals.

Ryan is very concerned that the appointment of adjudicators to a mega-tribunal will be skewed in favour of employers.

The Tories have already had their knuckles rapped in a court decision that agreed with labour that the Tory-appointed retired judges used in arbitrating the complaints of hospital workers were not impartial, but biased. The court ruled, that the government was trying to control the arbitration process and that it (government) could not appoint anymore retired judges.

But this government never gives-up on trying to shift the balance in favour of employers. This time they are attempting to level their injustice on our most vulnerable workers and we are absolutely opposed to it, says Ryan.

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For more information please contact:
Sid Ryan, President, CUPE Ontario
(416) 209-0066

Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications
(416) 578-8774