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Home My WebLink About1980-0516.Newdick and Janson.81-09-03Between: -- - And - The Crowr. in rtight of Dntaris (Ministry cf t:12 Envircnmont) ET,plOy=r Hearinq: JiiiiE. 4. 19S! -__ The grievors are currently e.mlployed as Znviron.mental Technicans 3 (XT31 in the Xinistry of the Environment Vehicle Emission Section, Castlefield Avenue, Toronto. They became ET3's affective August 1, 1980, previously being ET4's. Thus the grievance. Under Article S.l.1. of the relevant Collective Agreement an employee alleging that his position is improperly classified may file a grievance. Similarly jurisdiction coul be found in Section 17 of the Crown Smployees Ccllective 3argainir.g Act. The history of this matter is basically a typical :?istcry of a small section that started and grew. As early as 1968, 1959 the grievors 'were the original Automotive Test Inspectors i.n t5.e Section jrhich by 1980 contained 6 Inspectors. Cne of these, ci person who had arrived some time afte r the grievors and -xas trained by them was chosen as Test Centre :Yanager with supervisory rosson- sibiiity over the grievors and this 21~s the fact that in 1980 the grievor's salaries were red-circled must understandably nave caused them some concern. Sydney Newdick and J,. A. Jansen, under the supervision of John Jefferies organized tne Vehicle Emission Section in 1053 and 1969. Although they had the assistance of a ?rcjact Sngineer that person was not involved in the day-to-day WOi!< with them. Xuch of the original work was involved in establishing emission criteria for vehicle exhaust emissions, finding ?rc>er eqci;menr to test these emissions, meeting with the Federal and L:nite& States agencies involved in the same tas:is, :iee>ing u>-zc-daze on manufacturer's equipment, and sur-Jeying various municipalities to ensure that standards were being met in those m~unicipalities. Between 1968 and 1974 the grievors exe:cised considerable independence and jud,ment and spent a considerable time contacting various persons in the same area of work. They also helped set up special programs such as a irsed Car Dealer Program and Complaint Eiandlinq System. Although the present class standard of ST4 was not then in operation, and the grievers were,as indicated,Autonobile Test Supervisors, there seems little doubt that during this period the;r were functioning at the level of what would now be classified as ET4. In approximately 1974 a position of Test Centre Xanaqer was established and a Mr. Taylor was appointed to that position which he held until September 1978. AlthOuqh the grieVOiS were somewhat less involved in supervision during this time they continued to develop new innovative grograms, to train newly appointed test inspectors, and to Operate at a ievel SOmeWhat below their existing level bout somewhat above what would now be called an ET3 position. In 1975 the class standards for ET1 to 4 were established and they were' originally classified as Z?3's. They immediatelv discussed this with their supervisor and on the sane day were .. classified as ETl's. Other Inspectors who came into the Section after this date came in as ET3's where they remained. . . 2 13 197a XX. Taylor went and the reqnirement of su~ervisinq again fell on the shouiders of the grievors. This was because the Test Centre was being operated srithout a Director and any supervision had to come from ;Mr. Jefferies whose office was at 880 3ay Street. This left the Test Centre in the position of having two Senior Inspectors of equal grade (the grievers) who were jointly In charge of the Centre. This was felt to 'be an unsatisfactory situation as far as the Xinistry was concerned and the 'Ministry decided to reorganize, to .have one >!anaqer and five ET3 Inspectors at the Centre. This reorganization occurred in 1980 with interviews for the position of Test Ins?ectcr :v!anager being conducted on ;une 20. The grievors took ?art in this competition but were unsuccessful, the successful applicant Xr. Can.? beins an ST3. Since August of 1980 the jobs set up and done by the grievors have changed considerably. In particular Xr. Csnn now does all of the scheduling of educational field trips, most of the administration previously done by the grievors, much of the higher level contact work previously done by the grievors, with the result that the grievors are now doing jobs substantially similar to those done by the other ET3's in the Section. Xhere previously the grievors would supervise field crews, that sc;ervisicn is now done on a rotating basis by the various ET3's includinq the grievors. The new position specifiction for ST3's ?re?ared In .iugxt 1980 differs from the previous position specificaticn of ST4 introd.:c+: c i. in 1975 in a number of respects. It 1s quite clear that t:he supervisory duties previously done by the grievors in their previous status is now no longer oart of their function and is not included in the ET3 description. This ?lus the fact that the general class standards of ET4 and ET3 prepared in 1975 shows that the position of ET4 is contemplated as being a position in which persons are required to engage in a substantial amount of supervision or to be recoqnized, experts with considerable independence in the field. In addition some peisons Sresently classified as ST4 spend a considerable amount of time on s?eciai assignments without the same kind of direct supervision now exercised by Xr. Cann over the grievors. It was suggested that because the grievors remained in the position of ET?'s during ti-.e time that Hr. Taylor %as Tesf Centre Manager, that therefore the :4inistry was some how estopsed from reclassifying them in 1980. We find on the evidence that during the period of Mr. Taylor's tenure, when the Section was still in its infancy so to speak, the grievors continued to exercise far more independence than they now exercise under Mr. Cann. Thus it cannot be accurately said that they are now doing the same job that they did under Yr. Taylor. In dismissing the grievances we cannot he12 but say that we feel a considerable amount of syrpathy for the qrievors,being pioneers in the Section, being actively invclved in its ar--.kh - 4 and in the directions that it took, and T.CW findir.q t'nemselT.7es doing jobs which are somewhat diZ5ezer.t from the jobs t&y 552 involving considerably less independence and freedom. If the nature of their job had not changed after their :eclassification in 1980 we would have had no difficulty in allowing tee grievances. kiowever, unfortunately for the qrievors we can provi?e them with no remedy. DATED AT London, Ontario this 3rd day of Se,teaber, 1931. Qj&y Peter G. Barton Vice-Chairman I F. Collom ,Member