The main union for Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) workers is blaming the employer’s practice of contracting out safety-sensitive jobs for a recent incident in which an employee was hit by a bus.
According to an Aug. 24 news release from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 (ATU 113), the worker was seriously injured at the Wilson Bus Garage in north Toronto on Aug. 16. The driver of the bus, a contract employee, was exceeding the garage’s speed limit of seven kilometres per hour at the time, as confirmed by video footage and a GPS system.
“The TTC routinely hires unqualified contract workers in the maintenance department,” the release stated. “These workers receive less training and often operate transit buses without a valid bus driver’s license. The lack of training and qualifications has jeopardized our safety.”
The release was accompanied by two photos of the victim, who sported a black eye, bruises, scrapes and a heavily bandaged right hand. Local media reports have identified the worker as Neil Cooper, a TTC bus driver for the past 30 years.
A press statement from the TTC denied that its contract workers are insufficiently trained, saying that service line cleaners require valid Class A, B or C licences, as do bus drivers.
“This was an unfortunate incident that resulted in injuries to the operator,” the TTC said. “Safety is the cornerstone of all TTC operations, and we take incidents like this seriously.
“We continue to review this particular incident with the Ministry of Labour and our contractor.”
ATU 113 claimed that the TTC had failed to notify the union about the accident, saying that union representatives had found out about it only after receiving messages from the victim himself, several hours after the incident. The union called the employer’s lack of notification a breach of “agreed-upon health and safety procedures.”
The TTC also neglected to test the contract worker for alcohol and drugs after the accident, according to the union, which criticized the employer for subjecting non-contract employees to random testing while exempting contract employees, even those in safety-sensitive positions. “The TTC has created a two-tier system that punishes our members,” the release read, accusing the Commission of practising a double standard.
The release cited a previous incident from 2014, when a contract worker crashed a bus at the same garage and damaged two other vehicles. In this case, the union claimed, the worker was not licenced to operate any kind of vehicle, let alone a bus.
“To save a few bucks, the TTC seems happy to lower its safety standards by having unqualified contractors operating buses for maintenance,” ATU 113 secretary-treasurer Kevin Morton said in a separate press release on Aug. 24.
“How many more injuries and incidents will it take before the TTC realizes that contracting out safety critical positions poses unnecessary risk to all workers?”