MOOSE JAW — There were 11 active CUPE grievances against the City of Moose Jaw by the end of the fourth quarter, which was an increase of eight from the previous quarter, data show.
City administration presented the fourth-quarter reports during the recent regular city council meeting, with the documents showing the activities of city hall’s departments between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.
In the human resources department report, the document showed that with labour relations, CUPE submitted 10 new grievances while the fire department’s Local 553 Union submitted one complaint during the quarter. However, one CUPE grievance and one fire grievance were resolved, while CUPE withdrew one grievance.
Therefore, by Dec. 31, 2024, there were 11 active CUPE grievances, which was an increase of eight from the third quarter.
When asked how concerning those new grievances were, city manager Maryse Carmichael said that “it’s a regular occurrence” since some grievances come from temporary workers and some from permanent employees.
“They do happen regularly over the year,” she remarked.
When asked what the status was of contract negotiations with CUPE — staff have been without an agreement since Dec. 31, 2022 — Carmichael said to “stay tuned” since discussions were occurring. She added that T.J. Karwandy, the HR director, was in “constant communications with the union” and the city hoped to provide news soon.
Safety first
There were 38 safety incidents that city hall investigated during the fourth quarter, which was the same number as the third quarter and a decrease from 50 incidents in Q4 2023, the report showed.
The numbers of incidents in Q4 2024 versus 2023 were:
- First aid: 3 / 13
- Dangerous occurrence: 1 / 0
- Loss-time injury: 1 / 3
- No lost time: 1 / 5
- Near misses: 10 / 13
- Motor vehicle incidents: 13 / 2; six situations were suspected not-at-fault incidents
- Property damage: 8 / 11
- Non-occupational incident involving a non-employee: 1 / 3
“In Q4, the highest incident rate was in roadways and transit. This is due to the large number of motor vehicle incidents,” the report said.
“This can be related to some incidents with the public, and others are related to backing up,” the document continued. “The backing up incidents are related to the roadways (department) doing a different process to control the public in their work zones and closing the road when doing road cleaning.”
Roadways had 11 incidents, with near misses and motor vehicle collisions the top situations, the report added. Next was transit with nine incidents, with motor vehicle collisions the top incident.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, March 10.
