City lays off 674 temporary staff By: Joyanne Pursaga  Posted: 6:15 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 15, 2020

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This article was published 14/04/2020 (1619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg will temporarily lay off hundreds of workers as it deals with financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 674 non-permanent staff who work in now-closed recreation centres, pools, arenas, and libraries that the city owns and operates will be temporarily laid off on April 25.

“While we want to support our employees, we also need to ensure we are being responsible with taxpayers’ money. We cannot continue to pay employees’ salaries while facilities remain closed,” said Mike Ruta, the city’s interim chief administrative officer.

Those facilities were closed about a month ago, with the goal of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Currently, public gatherings of 10 or more people remain banned throughout Manitoba and citizens are expected to ensure at least a two-metre distance between themselves and others.

Ruta said the city redeployed as many workers as possible to avoid layoffs, moving 62 permanent staff into new roles that support Winnipeg Harvest, the community ambassador health order enforcement team and other city departments.

But he said the latest financial figures, combined with expectations that COVID-19-related health orders could continue for months, forced the city to cut jobs for now.

He estimates the city will save about $1 million per month due to the layoffs.

Ruta said most affected employees should be able to access unemployment benefits. Employees who receive regular employment insurance benefits will also be eligible for a supplementary top-up to 75% of their regular gross weekly salary for up to four weeks, according to a city press release.

“We’re certainly looking at all options.” – Interim chief administrative officer Mike Ruta

Ruta said the city could still consider further layoffs and/or ask staff to accept pay cuts, though the latter would require union negotiations.

“We’re certainly looking at all options,” he said.

Mayor Brian Bowman stressed the workers will be brought back as soon as possible, though there’s no clear timeline for when the facilities could re-open.

“When it’s safe for our citizens to return to the gathering spaces and these vital community spaces, I know it will be a huge relief for our staff to be making calls to our valued employees to come back to work,” said Bowman.

A union leader who represents most of the affected workers urged the city to avoid the job cuts by making additional efforts to redeploy staff.

Gord Delbridge, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500, suggested some staff could perform extra cleaning duties to reduce the pandemic risk while others could help repair city roads and other infrastructure.

“We could be putting people to work addressing some of our infrastructure. There’s not a lot of people on the road. Why aren’t we filling more potholes?” said Delbridge.

The union leader also opposed the idea of wage cuts, arguing that would have a negative effect on local spending.

“We’ve got businesses that are struggling. The last thing we want to do is start cutting that flow of revenue,” he said.

The city cast doubt on the feasibility of further worker redeployment.

Ruta said road repairs, for example, require specific skills and physical abilities that laid off workers may not have.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves to tell the stories of this city, especially when politics is involved. Joyanne became the city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.

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