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The Town at Work

Chapter 10City Employees and Labour

3,522 words · Mike Seiler · Owen Sound, Ontario

In this chapter

• 10.1 Respect for Municipal Workers
• 10.2 The Labour Partnership
• 10.3 Fix the Root Cause
• 10.4 Change With Employees, Not To Employees
• 10.5 Training and Redeployment
• 10.6 The Employment Protection Principle
• 10.7 Volunteers Do Not Replace Paid Work
• 10.8 The New Position Standard
• 10.9 Vacancy Review
• 10.10 Succession Planning
• 10.11 Apprenticeships and Local Career Paths
• 10.12 Employee Ideas Program
• 10.13 Overtime
• 10.14 Workplace Safety
• 10.15 Employee Well-Being
• 10.16 Performance Management
• 10.17 Management Accountability
• 10.18 Cross-Department Work
• 10.19 Frontline Authority
• 10.20 Public Workforce Information
• 10.21 Contracting Out
• 10.22 Labour Disputes
• 10.23 Workforce Planning and the Budget
• 10.24 The First-Year Workforce Review
• 10.25 The Employee Promise

A City is ultimately run by people.

Policies do not repair roads.

Budgets do not plow snow.

Plans do not operate water systems.

Council does not answer every telephone call, inspect every building, maintain every park, process every permit or respond to every emergency.

Municipal employees do that work.

A serious City business plan must therefore treat the municipal workforce as an asset to develop rather than simply an expense to reduce.

Owen Sound already has unionized employees, including outside workers represented by CUPE 1189-01, and the City ratified a collective agreement with that bargaining unit in 2025.

The City's own service review describes Human Resources responsibilities that include recruitment and retention, labour relations, health and safety, disability and return-to-work management, benefits, workplace accommodation, employee development, performance management and workforce planning.

Those functions should be connected to one clear workforce philosophy:

Hire good people. Give them useful tools. Set clear expectations. Listen to the people doing the work. Train continuously. Protect safety. Measure results. Fix systems before blaming people.

This is also where the City's efficiency philosophy must remain disciplined.

The objective is not to reduce the number of people simply to produce a smaller payroll number.

The objective is to reduce wasted effort so that the people we already employ can accomplish more useful work for the community.

10.1Respect for Municipal Workers

Respect for taxpayers and respect for employees are not opposing ideas.

Residents deserve value for the taxes they pay.

Employees deserve fair treatment for the work they perform.

Both can be true.

A municipal employee should reasonably expect:

• a safe workplace;
• clear responsibilities;
• appropriate equipment;
• fair compensation under applicable employment terms;
• respectful supervision;
• proper training;
• timely information about significant workplace changes;
• an opportunity to raise concerns;
• fair performance expectations;
• protection from political interference;
• appropriate privacy;
• recognition for good work.

In return, residents should reasonably expect:

• professional service;
• productive use of working time;
• respectful treatment;
• accountability;
• safe work practices;
• care for public property;
• willingness to improve;
• honest communication;
• service consistent with Council-approved standards.

The relationship is reciprocal.

The City should be a good employer.

Employees should provide good public service.

10.2The Labour Partnership

The original business-plan proposal calls for the City to meet with union locals before problems become disputes, establish a joint well-being process, make appropriate staffing and compensation information understandable, and work on root causes rather than waiting for conflict.

That should become a formal Labour Partnership.

The purpose is not to interfere with collective bargaining.

Collective agreements establish legally significant terms and conditions of employment, and Ontario's labour-relations framework governs collective bargaining relationships.

The purpose of the Labour Partnership is to create regular communication before bargaining positions become the only conversation taking place.

A Labour Partnership Table Could Address

• workplace safety;
• workload;
• overtime;
• equipment;
• scheduling;
• absenteeism trends;
• training;
• workplace culture;
• recurring grievances;
• upcoming retirements;
• recruitment;
• service redesign;
• technology changes;
• seasonal pressures;
• employee suggestions;
• succession planning.

Some of these conversations will appropriately remain confidential.

The public does not need access to individual employee information or collective bargaining strategy.

Residents should still be able to understand major workforce trends.

10.3Fix the Root Cause

A grievance is information.

High overtime is information.

Repeated turnover is information.

A workplace injury is information.

Frequent absenteeism is information.

Difficulty filling a position is information.

Repeated conflict between departments is information.

None of these automatically tells us what the underlying problem is.

They tell us where to look.

The Root Cause Standard

When a workforce problem repeatedly appears, ask:

1. Is staffing appropriate?
2. Is workload reasonable?
3. Is scheduling contributing?
4. Is equipment inadequate?
5. Is training missing?
6. Is the process poorly designed?
7. Is supervision contributing?
8. Is the expectation unclear?
9. Is there an unresolved workplace conflict?
10. Is another department creating the pressure?
11. Is outside regulation adding workload?
12. Is there a better way to perform the service?

The objective should be to correct the cause rather than repeatedly paying for the symptom.

10.4Change With Employees, Not To Employees

People generally understand that workplaces change.

The problem is often how change occurs.

A new system may look efficient from a management perspective but create unnecessary steps for the employee using it every day.

A new piece of equipment may appear cost-effective but be poorly suited to actual field conditions.

A new procedure may reduce work in one department while adding twice as much somewhere else.

Employees should therefore be involved early in significant operational change.

Before Major Workplace Change

Ask the people doing the work:

• What currently works?
• What currently wastes time?
• What are residents complaining about?
• What could be simplified?
• What safety concerns exist?
• What would the proposed change improve?
• What new problems might it create?
• What training would be required?
• What information does management not see from the office?

This does not mean every employee receives a veto over operational change.

Management must manage.

Council must establish policy.

Collective agreements must be respected.

But good management listens before redesigning work.

10.5Training and Redeployment

A changing City should invest in changing skills.

When a process becomes more efficient, the first question should not be:

"Whose job can disappear?"

It should be:

"What useful work can this capacity now accomplish?"

There is rarely a shortage of things a municipality could improve.

There are:

• infrastructure backlogs;
• accessibility improvements;
• mapping;
• preventive maintenance;
• customer service;
• parks;
• trails;
• asset information;
• inspections;
• public communication;
• emergency preparation;
• records;
• training.

Where changing operations reduce a particular workload, the City should examine:

1. retraining;
2. redeployment;
3. reassignment;
4. filling another vacancy;
5. succession needs;
6. normal retirement;
7. attrition.

The original plan states that workers should be repurposed with new tools and training rather than abandoned when work changes.

That remains an important principle.

10.6The Employment Protection Principle

The earlier version of this plan used the absolute statement that no positions would ever be cut.

The intention behind that commitment should remain, while the operating language should be precise enough to govern a real municipality.

The commitment should be:

No employee will be involuntarily displaced merely to manufacture an Efficiency Dividend.

That protects the integrity of the efficiency program without pretending that a municipality can guarantee that no position will ever change under any conceivable circumstance.

Municipal staffing can legitimately change because of:

• retirement;
• restructuring;
• legislation;
• service changes approved by Council;
• collective bargaining;
• organizational redesign;
• serious employee misconduct;
• changing community needs;
• technological change;
• financial emergencies.

Those circumstances should be addressed honestly and through the appropriate legal, contractual and employment processes.

Efficiency should never become a euphemism for:

"We found a person to remove."

The target should be wasted work.

Not workers.

10.7Volunteers Do Not Replace Paid Work

This plan will create significant opportunities for:

• students;
• service clubs;
• neighbourhood groups;
• residents;
• community organizations;
• local businesses.

Those opportunities must be properly separated from municipal employment.

Appropriate Volunteer Work

May include:

• community cleanups;
• event support;
• trail observation;
• planting;
• public information;
• community mapping;
• recreational leadership where appropriately qualified;
• neighbourhood projects;
• non-hazardous beautification.

Work That Normally Requires Qualified Paid Labour

Includes work involving:

• regulated trades;
• professional responsibilities;
• hazardous conditions;
• essential municipal operations;
• recurring operational duties;
• specialized equipment;
• statutory inspections;
• jobs forming part of normal bargaining-unit work.

The City's community programs should add to what municipal employees can accomplish.

They should not create a parallel unpaid workforce.

10.8The New Position Standard

The original plan proposes that every new City position should lessen the burden on residents and taxes.

That should become a formal New Position Business Case.

Before creating a permanent new position, Council should understand:

Why Is the Position Needed?

What problem cannot reasonably be solved within current capacity?

What Work Will Be Performed?

Describe the actual service.

Is the Need Permanent?

Could the work be:

• temporary;
• seasonal;
• project-based;
• contracted;
• shared with another organization?

What Is the Complete Cost?

Include:

• salary;
• benefits;
• pension;
• equipment;
• workspace;
• technology;
• training;
• management;
• other recurring employment costs.

What Does the Position Replace or Improve?

Will it:

• reduce overtime?
• shorten permit times?
• increase preventive maintenance?
• reduce contracting?
• improve revenue collection?
• meet a legal requirement?
• improve public safety?
• eliminate an existing backlog?
• improve service?

What Happens if We Do Not Hire?

This question matters too.

A vacant position can be more expensive than a filled one if the result is excessive overtime, contracting, delays or asset failure.

How Will We Measure the Result?

After twelve or twenty-four months, Council should be able to determine whether the original business case was accurate.

10.9Vacancy Review

A vacant position should not automatically be filled simply because it existed before.

Nor should it automatically remain vacant because leaving it empty reduces the budget.

Each meaningful vacancy creates an opportunity to ask:

• Is the work still required?
• Has the work changed?
• Is workload increasing or decreasing?
• Could responsibilities be reorganized?
• Is another department duplicating the work?
• Does leaving the position vacant create overtime?
• Is contracting costing more?
• Could this become a training opportunity for an existing employee?
• Is the position critical to succession planning?

This review should occur quickly enough that essential operations are not harmed by prolonged uncertainty.

The objective is intentional staffing.

Not automatic hiring.

Not automatic freezing.

10.10Succession Planning

Municipal knowledge can disappear when one experienced employee retires.

That creates risk.

Long-serving employees may know:

• why infrastructure was built a particular way;
• where undocumented problems exist;
• how equipment behaves;
• which seasonal issues recur;
• how departments cooperate;
• why a policy was created;
• which outside relationships matter.

The City should maintain an annual workforce succession review.

Identify

• positions approaching likely retirement;
• difficult-to-recruit occupations;
• specialized certifications;
• single-person knowledge risks;
• leadership succession;
• apprenticeship opportunities;
• internal candidates requiring development.

Knowledge Transfer

Before a critical employee leaves:

• document key processes;
• identify important contacts;
• record recurring issues;
• train another employee;
• update operating manuals;
• preserve necessary institutional knowledge.

A person's retirement should be celebrated.

It should not create an organizational emergency.

10.11Apprenticeships and Local Career Paths

The City can help develop the skilled workforce Owen Sound itself will eventually need.

Where appropriate, municipal departments should examine opportunities for:

• apprenticeships;
• co-operative education;
• college placements;
• summer employment;
• entry-level training;
• supervised student work;
• career transition.

This should connect directly to the Civic Corps proposed later in this plan.

A student could begin by participating in:

• community mapping;
• recreation;
• parks;
• public information;
• environmental work.

That experience may lead to:

• summer employment;
• co-op placement;
• apprenticeship;
• college education;
• municipal employment;
• local private-sector employment.

The goal is not for the City to employ every young person.

The goal is to help Owen Sound develop people who can build their lives here.

10.12Employee Ideas Program

Some of the best municipal improvement ideas will come from employees.

Create a simple Better Way program.

An employee should be able to submit:

The Problem

What wastes time or money?

The Idea

What should change?

The Benefit

Could it:

• save money;
• improve safety;
• improve resident service;
• reduce delay;
• reduce physical strain;
• extend asset life;
• simplify work?

What Is Required?

• money;
• equipment;
• policy change;
• training;
• cooperation from another department.

The submission should not require a twenty-page business case before anybody reads it.

Good ideas should first receive a quick review.

Promising ideas can then receive proper financial, operational and labour analysis.

Recognition

Employees whose ideas produce meaningful improvements should receive public or internal recognition, according to the employee's preference and applicable workplace policies.

The purpose is to create a culture in which improving the system is part of everyone's job.

10.13Overtime

Overtime is sometimes necessary.

Municipal emergencies do not respect ordinary working hours.

Snow falls overnight.

Water systems fail.

Storms damage infrastructure.

Special events create unusual workload.

Overtime becomes a concern when it stops being exceptional and becomes the normal way a service operates.

Track Overtime by Cause

Possible categories include:

• emergencies;
• seasonal operations;
• vacancies;
• special events;
• capital projects;
• workload;
• training coverage;
• recurring scheduling issues.

If a department regularly incurs significant overtime because one position remains vacant, filling the position may be the less expensive choice.

If overtime is caused by predictable seasonal work, scheduling may need to change.

If it is caused by repeated equipment failure, maintenance may be the answer.

Overtime should be treated as operational information, not simply a payroll number.

10.14Workplace Safety

No efficiency is legitimate if it makes work less safe.

Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act establishes duties for employers, supervisors and workers and is built around an internal responsibility system in which workplace parties share defined health-and-safety responsibilities.

Employers have statutory duties that include ensuring prescribed protective equipment and measures are provided and maintained and taking reasonable precautions to protect workers.

Safety should therefore be treated as an operating condition, not a competing financial objective.

Every Operational Improvement Should Ask

• Does the change introduce a new hazard?
• Does it reduce physical strain?
• Is additional training required?
• Is protective equipment required?
• Are employees being asked to work faster in a way that increases risk?
• Are staffing levels adequate for safe operation?
• What have workers identified that management may not see?

Near Misses Matter

A workplace does not need to wait for an injury before learning.

Near misses should be treated as valuable safety information.

The objective is prevention.

10.15Employee Well-Being

A workplace can be physically safe and still function poorly.

Employee well-being can be affected by:

• excessive workload;
• unresolved conflict;
• unclear expectations;
• poor scheduling;
• repeated public abuse;
• organizational uncertainty;
• inadequate support;
• difficult emergency work;
• lack of recovery time.

This does not mean the City can remove every source of workplace stress.

Municipal employees sometimes perform difficult work.

The City can make sure that avoidable organizational problems are not unnecessarily adding to it.

The City's current budget structure includes employee safety and well-being and workplace health-and-safety responsibilities, demonstrating that these are already recognized municipal functions.

Measure the System

Appropriate aggregate workforce indicators may include:

• vacancies;
• employee turnover;
• overtime;
• workplace injuries;
• lost-time incidents;
• absenteeism trends;
• training;
• recruitment timelines.

Individual health and employment information must remain private.

The purpose is to understand organizational health, not to publish personal employee information.

10.16Performance Management

Respectful employment still requires accountability.

Employees should know what good performance looks like.

Supervisors should address problems when they arise.

Employees should have an opportunity to understand expectations and improve.

Performance Should Be Connected to

• job responsibilities;
• safety;
• service standards;
• quality;
• reliability;
• teamwork;
• professional conduct;
• applicable policies;
• legitimate operational goals.

Performance management should not depend upon:

• political opinion;
• personal loyalty;
• whether an employee agrees with the Mayor;
• whether an employee has raised a legitimate concern.

Good management deals with performance directly rather than allowing frustration to accumulate until the relationship fails.

10.17Management Accountability

Accountability applies upward as well as downward.

A manager should be accountable for:

• employee clarity;
• appropriate scheduling;
• budget management;
• safety;
• service results;
• workplace culture;
• overtime;
• employee development;
• succession;
• unresolved operational problems.

If several good employees repeatedly fail inside the same process, leadership should examine the process before assuming every employee is the problem.

Management is responsible for creating the conditions in which employees can succeed.

10.18Cross-Department Work

Residents experience one City.

Departments should therefore be able to work across organizational boundaries.

The City's service review has already identified opportunities for shared resources, joint work planning and process or staffing synergies between municipal functions.

This plan should build upon that principle.

Possible shared work might involve:

• parks and public works;
• facilities and recreation;
• mapping and infrastructure;
• finance and procurement;
• communications and service intake;
• planning and economic development;
• emergency preparedness.

Annual Joint Work Plans

Where departments regularly depend upon one another, they should identify upcoming shared work before the year begins.

This can reduce:

• scheduling conflict;
• repeated site visits;
• duplicated procurement;
• equipment conflicts;
• resident delays.

Internal cooperation is itself a form of municipal efficiency.

10.19Frontline Authority

Not every minor service decision should require several layers of approval.

Where law, safety and financial controls permit, employees should have enough authority to resolve ordinary resident problems.

A resident should not wait several days because an employee needs three signatures to correct an obvious administrative mistake.

Delegation Should Be Clear

Employees need to know:

• what they may decide;
• what requires supervisory approval;
• what requires Council;
• what requires professional review;
• what financial limits apply.

Proper delegation creates faster service while preserving accountability.

10.20Public Workforce Information

Residents fund the municipal workforce and should be able to understand its overall structure.

Public reporting should include appropriate aggregate information such as:

• authorized positions;
• filled positions;
• vacancies;
• major new positions;
• staffing by broad service area;
• overtime trends;
• workforce costs;
• major training investments;
• retirements and succession pressures where appropriate.

Personal employee files should remain private.

Transparency about a workforce does not require public management of individual employees.

Compensation

Where legislation requires individual compensation disclosure, the City will comply.

Beyond those requirements, the better planning tool is usually:

• salary bands;
• total compensation categories;
• overall labour cost;
• position counts.

The objective is understanding public cost while respecting appropriate employee privacy.

10.21Contracting Out

Contracting can be useful.

It may provide:

• specialized expertise;
• seasonal capacity;
• emergency support;
• equipment the City does not own;
• skills not required on a permanent basis.

It should not be assumed automatically to be cheaper.

Before Contracting Recurring Municipal Work

Compare:

Internal Cost

Include:

• wages;
• benefits;
• equipment;
• supervision;
• overhead reasonably attributable to the service.

Contract Cost

Include:

• contract price;
• procurement;
• contract management;
• inspection;
• escalation;
• change orders;
• loss of internal capacity;
• transition risk.

Also consider:

• service quality;
• response time;
• workforce impact;
• collective agreement requirements;
• public accountability.

The existing proposal preserves safety-critical and emergency work for City crews while using qualified local trades for suitable overflow and smaller work.

That balanced approach should remain.

10.22Labour Disputes

The best labour dispute is one prevented through good labour relations.

Not every disagreement can be prevented.

Collective bargaining involves legitimate competing responsibilities.

Workers advocate for fair compensation and working conditions.

The City must protect public services and taxpayer resources.

Both sides should be able to negotiate firmly without treating one another as enemies.

The Municipal Commitment

Before bargaining becomes a crisis:

• communicate regularly;
• share appropriate operational information;
• identify recurring problems;
• address workplace issues early;
• understand financial conditions;
• respect the bargaining process.

The existing proposal expresses a strong preference against using replacement workers during a municipal labour dispute.

Any final policy commitment in this area must operate within applicable labour law, emergency obligations, collective agreements and Council's responsibility to protect essential municipal functions.

The larger objective is to build a labour relationship strong enough that a dispute is the exception rather than the normal means of communication.

10.23Workforce Planning and the Budget

Staffing decisions should not appear in the budget as isolated lines.

Each department should connect staffing to:

• service level;
• workload;
• overtime;
• vacancies;
• population and service demand;
• regulatory requirements;
• asset workload;
• capital program;
• succession;
• productivity.

Annual Workforce Plan

The budget should include a concise workforce plan showing:

Positions Added

Why?

Positions Removed or Reorganized

Why?

Vacancies

What is the operational impact?

Retirement Risk

Where is succession required?

Overtime

What is driving it?

Training

What capability is being developed?

This makes labour cost understandable rather than simply presenting one large annual number.

10.24The First-Year Workforce Review

During the first year of the term, undertake a collaborative workforce review.

This is not a predetermined reduction exercise.

It should involve:

• management;
• employees;
• bargaining representatives where applicable;
• finance;
• Human Resources.

Review

• organizational structure;
• vacancies;
• workload;
• overtime;
• employee safety;
• recurring grievances;
• recruitment difficulties;
• succession;
• training;
• duplicated work;
• opportunities for redeployment;
• contracting;
• technology;
• employee suggestions.

Ask Every Work Group

What prevents you from doing your best work for Owen Sound?

Possible answers may include:

• broken equipment;
• unnecessary forms;
• lack of staff;
• too many staff performing the wrong work;
• poor scheduling;
• outdated processes;
• training;
• unclear authority;
• delays from another department.

Then fix what can reasonably be fixed.

10.25The Employee Promise

A municipality asking its workforce to improve should make its own commitments clear.

Under this plan, municipal employees should be able to expect:

We will tell you why change is being proposed.

We will listen to the people doing the work.

We will respect collective agreements and employment law.

We will not use volunteers as a substitute for proper municipal employment.

We will invest in training where work changes.

We will protect professional advice from political pressure.

We will measure systems fairly.

We will recognize good ideas.

We will treat safety as non-negotiable.

We will not remove someone's livelihood merely to create an Efficiency Dividend.

In return, the people of Owen Sound should be able to expect a workforce committed to:

service;

safety;

professionalism;

continuous improvement;

care for public resources;

respect for residents;

accountability for results.

The Workforce Commitment

City employees should not be regarded as the obstacle between the public and efficient government.

They should be among the people building it.

The City already possesses enormous practical knowledge inside its workforce.

A good business plan should release that knowledge.

Ask employees what wastes time.

Ask what breaks repeatedly.

Ask what residents complain about.

Ask which tools no longer work.

Ask where unnecessary approvals exist.

Ask what they would repair first.

Ask what they need to learn next.

Then connect that knowledge to clear management, good financial information and public service standards.

The objective is not simply a happier workplace.

It is a more capable municipality.

Good people.

Clear work.

Safe conditions.

Fair expectations.

Better tools.

Continuous learning.

Respect on both sides.

When the workforce succeeds, Owen Sound succeeds.