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Foothills division custodians say lack of job security causing frustration, anger
By
Staff reporter
Custodians in the Foothills School Division (FSD) schools are worried about their job security after the contractor they worked for terminated its contract with the Foothills School Division.
More than 40 local custodians were hired with Unnico Facilities Services to provide service to 13 Foothills School Division schools.
In June of this year Unnico gave notice to the Foothills School Division that it wished to terminate its contract effective Oct. 31.
'The present contractor is pulling the pin and leaving effective Oct. 31,' said custodian Joyce Bowlby from Black Diamond.
She added that the custodians are now unsure where their future lies. If the school division hires a new contractor, Bowlby claims there is no certainty they will hire previous Foothills employees. The new contractor could, in essence, bring in a whole new fleet of workers, leaving those who have worked for the Foothills School Division for 50 years out in the cold, she said.
'We still don't know who the employer is going to be. We don't know if we still have a job,' said Bowlby.
But according to Jay Pritchard, associate superintendent of FSD, the board sent out a request for proposals at that time and eight new contractors responded.
Pritchard said that every one of the contractors said they would consider hiring the employees already in the Foothills.
'They won't come here with a labor force in their back pockets,' said Pritchard adding that while there is no guarantee, it would make sense for the contractors to keep existing employees on staff.
Tom O'Leary, CUPE representative for the employees, said the employees have little faith when it comes to a potential contractor keeping existing employees on staff.
Pritchard said the board shortlisted the potential contractors to five and it is expected that a new contractor will be in place by this week.
'Hopefully for the individuals waiting to hear, the waiting period is about to end,' said Pritchard of the employees.
But for the employees waiting to hear who the next contractor will be is not the only source of contention.
The employees, who are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) sub-local 40, have concerns with that by continuing to contract out custodial services there is a lack of quality of service.
O'Leary explained that the school division has a ‘false economy of service.'
'The school division has thrown quality of services and confidence in the provision of those services up in the air (by contracting out),' said O'Leary. 'They are losing local community control.'
Previously custodial services were the responsibility of staff employed directly by FSD and CUPE wants the services to return to ‘in-house' delivery.
'Direct delivery of services is the best way to ensure effective use of budget resources, high quality services responsive to educational and facility requirements, the flexibility to address changing needs and the fair treatment of staff working in the school and other board facilities,' stated a CUPE presentation made to the school board in June.
The board made the move to contract out services in the early 1990s due to provincial budget cutbacks.
'We received pretty substantial cutbacks in our operations and maintenance budget,' said Pritchard. 'The decrease in education funding caused school systems across the province to make monetary decisions that have had a pretty profound impact on our residents.'
He said that contracting out custodial services was ‘simply a monetary decision.'
'But it continues to be a point of discussion with our board,' added Pritchard.
Since those cutbacks, O'Leary said employees have been faced with severe wage cutbacks from a respectable $15 per hour to as low as $6 per hour.
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