in the matter of the police act, r.s.o. 1970, chapter …
TRANSCRIPT
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June 4 1975
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IN THE MATTER OF THE POLICE ACT RSO 1970 CHAPTER 351 AS RE-ENACTED BYTHE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 2 OF THE POLICE AJ1ENDMENT ACT 1972 CHAPTER 103
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AJ~DIN THE MATTIR OF lU~ ARBITRATION_ --
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BETWEEN THE BOARD OF CO~lliISSIONERSOF POLICE FOR THE TOWNSHIPOF SARNIA (hereinaftercalled the Commission)
AND THE SAiU~IATOWNSHIP POLICEASSOCIATION (hereinaftercalled the Association)
ARBITRATOR Kenneth P Swan
APPEAf1NCES
For tbe Commission Mr Hugh Garrett Counsel AA
Mr Kenneth James Reeve- Mr Richard Chowen Secretary
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For the Associat~on Mr Donald W Stannard SpokesmanMr Jack Willis President
Nr Ken Sauve SecretaryMr Greg Sharpe Treasurer ~ 0
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AWARD
At the request of the Association and pursuant to the
provisions of-Section 32 of thePolice Act RSO 1970 c 351
as re-enacted by the provisions of Section 2 of the Police Amendshy
ment Act 1972 S 0 1972 c 103 the undersigned was-designatedr
on April ~41915by the Honourable John T Clement QC Acting~
Solicitor General to hear and determine all matters in dispute
between the Association and the Commission concerning the terms of
( an agreement between the parties which would be effective from
January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
The hearing was conducted in Sarnia Ontario on Thursday
May 8 1975 At the commencement of the proceedings therepresenta
tives of the parties agreed that the appointment of the arbitrator~
was in accordance with the Police Act and that I had jurisdiction
to deal with the issues in dispute between the partiessubject to
one submission by the Commission going to jurisdiction
That submission concerns Section 32(1) of the Police Act
which provides-
Where after bargaining under section 29=thecouncil of the municipality or where there isa board the board or the members of the policeforce orwhere there is a bargaining committeethe ba~gaining committee is satisfied that an
agreement cannot be reached it may by notice ~nwriting to the Solicitor General and to the other
party require all matters in dispute to bereferred to an arbitrator designated by the Solicishytor General
Mr Garrett on behalf of the Commission argued that as the notice
in writing provided in section 32(1) was delivered to the Acting
Solicitor General late in March 1975 and as the parties had with
( the consent of the Association met subsequent to that notice on
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two separate occasions April 9 and April 24 1975 the As~ociation
could not have been satisfied that an agreement cannot be reached
as required by the Act at the time of sending the notice to the
Acting Solicitor General
Assuming although I have some doubt that I-9lll entitled
sa to ass~~ that an arbitrator may look behind his appointment by -
the Solicitor General I do not think that the circumstances of -
( this case in any way jeopardize the jurisdiction of an arbitrator
to proceed to hear and determine the matters in dispute between
the parties There may be occasions on which notice by a party
under section 32 may be given in bad faith and it maybe (although
I have some doubt) that such circumstancesmight nullify the appoint
ment of an arbitrator by the Solicitor General This however is
r not such a case For a party which has given notice that it wishes
to proceed to arbitration to continue nevertheless to ne90tiate witt
the other party in an attempt to remove the obstacles to agreement
which made arbitration necessary in the first place is more consisshy
tent with good collective bargaining practice and good faitht~an
i~ is with any allegation of bad faith I did not understand Mr shy -
Garrett to ha~e alleged bad faith on the part of the Association in
any event and I ~ therefore of the opinion which I expres~ed
orally at the hearing that my jurisdiction is unhinderedby the- ~
fact that negotiations have continued following my appointment
The present arbitration deals with two separate agreement
made with the Commission one by the Association acting on behalf
of the police officers in the Township and the other by the
Association acting on behalf of the civilian employee of the Townshy
ship police department In each case the only matter in dispute
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between the parties is the clause of the respective agreements
dealing with salaries As the evidence presented at the hearing
dealt quite d~fferently with the two agreements I shall treat
them separately in this award0
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- Police Officers Agreementi
The agreement concerning the terms and conditions of
( employment of police officers in the TO~lShip is dated May 30
1974 and is by its terms in effect from January 1 1974 until
December 31 1975 except for clause 9(a) of the agreementr which
expired December 31 1974 Clause 9(a) deals with salaries and
the issue before the arbitration board is the terms of -a new
clause 9a) to be in effect from January 1 1975 to December 31~
1975
The submission of the Association was that the new salary
scale should incorporate an increase of 25 over the 1974 salary
scale but it soon became clear that the evidence of settl~ents in
police forces in the surrounding area could not support an ~ncrease-
opo this scale and that the real issue between the p~ties was the
question of parity with the City of Sarnia Police Department For
some time at least since the award of Mr George SP Fergu$on Q
dated December 21 1973 (the last time these same parties-went to-
arbitration) police officers in Sarnia Township have enjoyed rough
parity with police officers of equal rank in the City of Sarnia
In his award Mr Fe~ said
In dealing with the question of salaries one mustgive considerable weight to salaries being paid inareas immediately adjoining the toVllshipof Sarnia
and I respectfully adopt this finding a$ a general principle
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although it is not conclusive of the parity issue I note also
thatwith the greatest respect to the ~houghtful and thorough
argument of Mr~ Stannard I am unable to see in the evidence
presented by the Association any reason to increase salaries in
Sarnia Township subst~~tially above those which haye ~een bargained
for and agree~ by police officers in the immediate vicinity
The Commission on ~~e other hand argued that the
principle of parity was inappropriateand presented evidence aimed
at establishing three reasons why the Sarnia Township salaries
ought not to be as high as those paid in the City of Sarnia
1 Without disparaging the sincerity and devotion ofthepolice officers in Sarnia Township theCommission argued that they were not as wellqualified as police officers of similar rankandexperience in the City of Sarnia
- 2 In the Commissions submission the job of policingthe area in Sarnia Township for which Associationmembers are responsible is not comparable to policework in the City of Sarnia
3 The best comparisions for Sarnia Township salaziesare the small police forces in the same generalarea not including the City of Sarnia~
I ~ In support of the first of these propositions Mr
Garrett called as a witness Staff SuperintendentDonald MacDona~d-
of the Sarnia -Police Department the officer in charge of administr
tion and services with particular responsibility for training
Chief of Police Murray Miller of Sarnia Township was also~caLled as
a witness to provide information about the Township police for
comparison with the information provided about the City police~
Staff Superintendent MacDonald outlined the program of training
assessment and selection used to ensure efficiency in the Sarnia
Police Department The program described was an impressive
efficient operation involving both local training and attendance
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( at outside courses It is a program of which the SarniaPolice
Department can justly be proud and Chief Miller was quick to
admit that no such program existed within the Township police
force Nevertheless I am unable to find this argument persuasive
in dealing with the parity ~ssue ~
- The~Township force consists besides Chief Miller of
one Sergeant and six constables A force of that size could not
possibly mount a training program of the sort described by Staff
Superintendent MacDonald and has no need for a careful assessment
and selection program like that used in Sarnia to handle a much(
larger body of officers in an efficient way This in no way
reflects upon the worth and value of the individual police officersf
in the Township Chief Millers evidence was that basic training
at the Ontario Police College had been provided to the extent
possible to members of the force and that the obstacles in the way
of further training were entirely administrative As well courses
designed to produce specialized expertise are unnecessary in a
township forcesimply because specialized services such as- - -
~reathalizer testing are available from the City of $arnia police
There is no doubt that as a force the City of Samla Police Depa~
~ent isbetter organized and better trained than is the Township
Police DeparL~ent I cannot find however on the evidence before
me th~~ this reflects in any way upon the ability efficienCy or
worth of any individual member of the Township force
As to the second reason advanced by the Commission for
denying parity Mr Richard Chowen Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners of Police gave evidence concerning the nature of
the job of policing that area of the Township patrolled by
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Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
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two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
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be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
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the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
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In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
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salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
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second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
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be paid at the new rate as from that date
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Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
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in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
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DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
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Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
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AWARD
At the request of the Association and pursuant to the
provisions of-Section 32 of thePolice Act RSO 1970 c 351
as re-enacted by the provisions of Section 2 of the Police Amendshy
ment Act 1972 S 0 1972 c 103 the undersigned was-designatedr
on April ~41915by the Honourable John T Clement QC Acting~
Solicitor General to hear and determine all matters in dispute
between the Association and the Commission concerning the terms of
( an agreement between the parties which would be effective from
January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
The hearing was conducted in Sarnia Ontario on Thursday
May 8 1975 At the commencement of the proceedings therepresenta
tives of the parties agreed that the appointment of the arbitrator~
was in accordance with the Police Act and that I had jurisdiction
to deal with the issues in dispute between the partiessubject to
one submission by the Commission going to jurisdiction
That submission concerns Section 32(1) of the Police Act
which provides-
Where after bargaining under section 29=thecouncil of the municipality or where there isa board the board or the members of the policeforce orwhere there is a bargaining committeethe ba~gaining committee is satisfied that an
agreement cannot be reached it may by notice ~nwriting to the Solicitor General and to the other
party require all matters in dispute to bereferred to an arbitrator designated by the Solicishytor General
Mr Garrett on behalf of the Commission argued that as the notice
in writing provided in section 32(1) was delivered to the Acting
Solicitor General late in March 1975 and as the parties had with
( the consent of the Association met subsequent to that notice on
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two separate occasions April 9 and April 24 1975 the As~ociation
could not have been satisfied that an agreement cannot be reached
as required by the Act at the time of sending the notice to the
Acting Solicitor General
Assuming although I have some doubt that I-9lll entitled
sa to ass~~ that an arbitrator may look behind his appointment by -
the Solicitor General I do not think that the circumstances of -
( this case in any way jeopardize the jurisdiction of an arbitrator
to proceed to hear and determine the matters in dispute between
the parties There may be occasions on which notice by a party
under section 32 may be given in bad faith and it maybe (although
I have some doubt) that such circumstancesmight nullify the appoint
ment of an arbitrator by the Solicitor General This however is
r not such a case For a party which has given notice that it wishes
to proceed to arbitration to continue nevertheless to ne90tiate witt
the other party in an attempt to remove the obstacles to agreement
which made arbitration necessary in the first place is more consisshy
tent with good collective bargaining practice and good faitht~an
i~ is with any allegation of bad faith I did not understand Mr shy -
Garrett to ha~e alleged bad faith on the part of the Association in
any event and I ~ therefore of the opinion which I expres~ed
orally at the hearing that my jurisdiction is unhinderedby the- ~
fact that negotiations have continued following my appointment
The present arbitration deals with two separate agreement
made with the Commission one by the Association acting on behalf
of the police officers in the Township and the other by the
Association acting on behalf of the civilian employee of the Townshy
ship police department In each case the only matter in dispute
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between the parties is the clause of the respective agreements
dealing with salaries As the evidence presented at the hearing
dealt quite d~fferently with the two agreements I shall treat
them separately in this award0
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- Police Officers Agreementi
The agreement concerning the terms and conditions of
( employment of police officers in the TO~lShip is dated May 30
1974 and is by its terms in effect from January 1 1974 until
December 31 1975 except for clause 9(a) of the agreementr which
expired December 31 1974 Clause 9(a) deals with salaries and
the issue before the arbitration board is the terms of -a new
clause 9a) to be in effect from January 1 1975 to December 31~
1975
The submission of the Association was that the new salary
scale should incorporate an increase of 25 over the 1974 salary
scale but it soon became clear that the evidence of settl~ents in
police forces in the surrounding area could not support an ~ncrease-
opo this scale and that the real issue between the p~ties was the
question of parity with the City of Sarnia Police Department For
some time at least since the award of Mr George SP Fergu$on Q
dated December 21 1973 (the last time these same parties-went to-
arbitration) police officers in Sarnia Township have enjoyed rough
parity with police officers of equal rank in the City of Sarnia
In his award Mr Fe~ said
In dealing with the question of salaries one mustgive considerable weight to salaries being paid inareas immediately adjoining the toVllshipof Sarnia
and I respectfully adopt this finding a$ a general principle
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although it is not conclusive of the parity issue I note also
thatwith the greatest respect to the ~houghtful and thorough
argument of Mr~ Stannard I am unable to see in the evidence
presented by the Association any reason to increase salaries in
Sarnia Township subst~~tially above those which haye ~een bargained
for and agree~ by police officers in the immediate vicinity
The Commission on ~~e other hand argued that the
principle of parity was inappropriateand presented evidence aimed
at establishing three reasons why the Sarnia Township salaries
ought not to be as high as those paid in the City of Sarnia
1 Without disparaging the sincerity and devotion ofthepolice officers in Sarnia Township theCommission argued that they were not as wellqualified as police officers of similar rankandexperience in the City of Sarnia
- 2 In the Commissions submission the job of policingthe area in Sarnia Township for which Associationmembers are responsible is not comparable to policework in the City of Sarnia
3 The best comparisions for Sarnia Township salaziesare the small police forces in the same generalarea not including the City of Sarnia~
I ~ In support of the first of these propositions Mr
Garrett called as a witness Staff SuperintendentDonald MacDona~d-
of the Sarnia -Police Department the officer in charge of administr
tion and services with particular responsibility for training
Chief of Police Murray Miller of Sarnia Township was also~caLled as
a witness to provide information about the Township police for
comparison with the information provided about the City police~
Staff Superintendent MacDonald outlined the program of training
assessment and selection used to ensure efficiency in the Sarnia
Police Department The program described was an impressive
efficient operation involving both local training and attendance
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( at outside courses It is a program of which the SarniaPolice
Department can justly be proud and Chief Miller was quick to
admit that no such program existed within the Township police
force Nevertheless I am unable to find this argument persuasive
in dealing with the parity ~ssue ~
- The~Township force consists besides Chief Miller of
one Sergeant and six constables A force of that size could not
possibly mount a training program of the sort described by Staff
Superintendent MacDonald and has no need for a careful assessment
and selection program like that used in Sarnia to handle a much(
larger body of officers in an efficient way This in no way
reflects upon the worth and value of the individual police officersf
in the Township Chief Millers evidence was that basic training
at the Ontario Police College had been provided to the extent
possible to members of the force and that the obstacles in the way
of further training were entirely administrative As well courses
designed to produce specialized expertise are unnecessary in a
township forcesimply because specialized services such as- - -
~reathalizer testing are available from the City of $arnia police
There is no doubt that as a force the City of Samla Police Depa~
~ent isbetter organized and better trained than is the Township
Police DeparL~ent I cannot find however on the evidence before
me th~~ this reflects in any way upon the ability efficienCy or
worth of any individual member of the Township force
As to the second reason advanced by the Commission for
denying parity Mr Richard Chowen Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners of Police gave evidence concerning the nature of
the job of policing that area of the Township patrolled by
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Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
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two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
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be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
( - 3 shy ~ ~
two separate occasions April 9 and April 24 1975 the As~ociation
could not have been satisfied that an agreement cannot be reached
as required by the Act at the time of sending the notice to the
Acting Solicitor General
Assuming although I have some doubt that I-9lll entitled
sa to ass~~ that an arbitrator may look behind his appointment by -
the Solicitor General I do not think that the circumstances of -
( this case in any way jeopardize the jurisdiction of an arbitrator
to proceed to hear and determine the matters in dispute between
the parties There may be occasions on which notice by a party
under section 32 may be given in bad faith and it maybe (although
I have some doubt) that such circumstancesmight nullify the appoint
ment of an arbitrator by the Solicitor General This however is
r not such a case For a party which has given notice that it wishes
to proceed to arbitration to continue nevertheless to ne90tiate witt
the other party in an attempt to remove the obstacles to agreement
which made arbitration necessary in the first place is more consisshy
tent with good collective bargaining practice and good faitht~an
i~ is with any allegation of bad faith I did not understand Mr shy -
Garrett to ha~e alleged bad faith on the part of the Association in
any event and I ~ therefore of the opinion which I expres~ed
orally at the hearing that my jurisdiction is unhinderedby the- ~
fact that negotiations have continued following my appointment
The present arbitration deals with two separate agreement
made with the Commission one by the Association acting on behalf
of the police officers in the Township and the other by the
Association acting on behalf of the civilian employee of the Townshy
ship police department In each case the only matter in dispute
) ~- 4 shy
between the parties is the clause of the respective agreements
dealing with salaries As the evidence presented at the hearing
dealt quite d~fferently with the two agreements I shall treat
them separately in this award0
~
- Police Officers Agreementi
The agreement concerning the terms and conditions of
( employment of police officers in the TO~lShip is dated May 30
1974 and is by its terms in effect from January 1 1974 until
December 31 1975 except for clause 9(a) of the agreementr which
expired December 31 1974 Clause 9(a) deals with salaries and
the issue before the arbitration board is the terms of -a new
clause 9a) to be in effect from January 1 1975 to December 31~
1975
The submission of the Association was that the new salary
scale should incorporate an increase of 25 over the 1974 salary
scale but it soon became clear that the evidence of settl~ents in
police forces in the surrounding area could not support an ~ncrease-
opo this scale and that the real issue between the p~ties was the
question of parity with the City of Sarnia Police Department For
some time at least since the award of Mr George SP Fergu$on Q
dated December 21 1973 (the last time these same parties-went to-
arbitration) police officers in Sarnia Township have enjoyed rough
parity with police officers of equal rank in the City of Sarnia
In his award Mr Fe~ said
In dealing with the question of salaries one mustgive considerable weight to salaries being paid inareas immediately adjoining the toVllshipof Sarnia
and I respectfully adopt this finding a$ a general principle
- ~ shy~
although it is not conclusive of the parity issue I note also
thatwith the greatest respect to the ~houghtful and thorough
argument of Mr~ Stannard I am unable to see in the evidence
presented by the Association any reason to increase salaries in
Sarnia Township subst~~tially above those which haye ~een bargained
for and agree~ by police officers in the immediate vicinity
The Commission on ~~e other hand argued that the
principle of parity was inappropriateand presented evidence aimed
at establishing three reasons why the Sarnia Township salaries
ought not to be as high as those paid in the City of Sarnia
1 Without disparaging the sincerity and devotion ofthepolice officers in Sarnia Township theCommission argued that they were not as wellqualified as police officers of similar rankandexperience in the City of Sarnia
- 2 In the Commissions submission the job of policingthe area in Sarnia Township for which Associationmembers are responsible is not comparable to policework in the City of Sarnia
3 The best comparisions for Sarnia Township salaziesare the small police forces in the same generalarea not including the City of Sarnia~
I ~ In support of the first of these propositions Mr
Garrett called as a witness Staff SuperintendentDonald MacDona~d-
of the Sarnia -Police Department the officer in charge of administr
tion and services with particular responsibility for training
Chief of Police Murray Miller of Sarnia Township was also~caLled as
a witness to provide information about the Township police for
comparison with the information provided about the City police~
Staff Superintendent MacDonald outlined the program of training
assessment and selection used to ensure efficiency in the Sarnia
Police Department The program described was an impressive
efficient operation involving both local training and attendance
- -
- 6 - -
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
II
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
( at outside courses It is a program of which the SarniaPolice
Department can justly be proud and Chief Miller was quick to
admit that no such program existed within the Township police
force Nevertheless I am unable to find this argument persuasive
in dealing with the parity ~ssue ~
- The~Township force consists besides Chief Miller of
one Sergeant and six constables A force of that size could not
possibly mount a training program of the sort described by Staff
Superintendent MacDonald and has no need for a careful assessment
and selection program like that used in Sarnia to handle a much(
larger body of officers in an efficient way This in no way
reflects upon the worth and value of the individual police officersf
in the Township Chief Millers evidence was that basic training
at the Ontario Police College had been provided to the extent
possible to members of the force and that the obstacles in the way
of further training were entirely administrative As well courses
designed to produce specialized expertise are unnecessary in a
township forcesimply because specialized services such as- - -
~reathalizer testing are available from the City of $arnia police
There is no doubt that as a force the City of Samla Police Depa~
~ent isbetter organized and better trained than is the Township
Police DeparL~ent I cannot find however on the evidence before
me th~~ this reflects in any way upon the ability efficienCy or
worth of any individual member of the Township force
As to the second reason advanced by the Commission for
denying parity Mr Richard Chowen Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners of Police gave evidence concerning the nature of
the job of policing that area of the Township patrolled by
-- --- -
I I
- 7 - )
Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
(
two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
- -
- 8 - shy)
be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
) ~- 4 shy
between the parties is the clause of the respective agreements
dealing with salaries As the evidence presented at the hearing
dealt quite d~fferently with the two agreements I shall treat
them separately in this award0
~
- Police Officers Agreementi
The agreement concerning the terms and conditions of
( employment of police officers in the TO~lShip is dated May 30
1974 and is by its terms in effect from January 1 1974 until
December 31 1975 except for clause 9(a) of the agreementr which
expired December 31 1974 Clause 9(a) deals with salaries and
the issue before the arbitration board is the terms of -a new
clause 9a) to be in effect from January 1 1975 to December 31~
1975
The submission of the Association was that the new salary
scale should incorporate an increase of 25 over the 1974 salary
scale but it soon became clear that the evidence of settl~ents in
police forces in the surrounding area could not support an ~ncrease-
opo this scale and that the real issue between the p~ties was the
question of parity with the City of Sarnia Police Department For
some time at least since the award of Mr George SP Fergu$on Q
dated December 21 1973 (the last time these same parties-went to-
arbitration) police officers in Sarnia Township have enjoyed rough
parity with police officers of equal rank in the City of Sarnia
In his award Mr Fe~ said
In dealing with the question of salaries one mustgive considerable weight to salaries being paid inareas immediately adjoining the toVllshipof Sarnia
and I respectfully adopt this finding a$ a general principle
- ~ shy~
although it is not conclusive of the parity issue I note also
thatwith the greatest respect to the ~houghtful and thorough
argument of Mr~ Stannard I am unable to see in the evidence
presented by the Association any reason to increase salaries in
Sarnia Township subst~~tially above those which haye ~een bargained
for and agree~ by police officers in the immediate vicinity
The Commission on ~~e other hand argued that the
principle of parity was inappropriateand presented evidence aimed
at establishing three reasons why the Sarnia Township salaries
ought not to be as high as those paid in the City of Sarnia
1 Without disparaging the sincerity and devotion ofthepolice officers in Sarnia Township theCommission argued that they were not as wellqualified as police officers of similar rankandexperience in the City of Sarnia
- 2 In the Commissions submission the job of policingthe area in Sarnia Township for which Associationmembers are responsible is not comparable to policework in the City of Sarnia
3 The best comparisions for Sarnia Township salaziesare the small police forces in the same generalarea not including the City of Sarnia~
I ~ In support of the first of these propositions Mr
Garrett called as a witness Staff SuperintendentDonald MacDona~d-
of the Sarnia -Police Department the officer in charge of administr
tion and services with particular responsibility for training
Chief of Police Murray Miller of Sarnia Township was also~caLled as
a witness to provide information about the Township police for
comparison with the information provided about the City police~
Staff Superintendent MacDonald outlined the program of training
assessment and selection used to ensure efficiency in the Sarnia
Police Department The program described was an impressive
efficient operation involving both local training and attendance
- -
- 6 - -
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
II
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
( at outside courses It is a program of which the SarniaPolice
Department can justly be proud and Chief Miller was quick to
admit that no such program existed within the Township police
force Nevertheless I am unable to find this argument persuasive
in dealing with the parity ~ssue ~
- The~Township force consists besides Chief Miller of
one Sergeant and six constables A force of that size could not
possibly mount a training program of the sort described by Staff
Superintendent MacDonald and has no need for a careful assessment
and selection program like that used in Sarnia to handle a much(
larger body of officers in an efficient way This in no way
reflects upon the worth and value of the individual police officersf
in the Township Chief Millers evidence was that basic training
at the Ontario Police College had been provided to the extent
possible to members of the force and that the obstacles in the way
of further training were entirely administrative As well courses
designed to produce specialized expertise are unnecessary in a
township forcesimply because specialized services such as- - -
~reathalizer testing are available from the City of $arnia police
There is no doubt that as a force the City of Samla Police Depa~
~ent isbetter organized and better trained than is the Township
Police DeparL~ent I cannot find however on the evidence before
me th~~ this reflects in any way upon the ability efficienCy or
worth of any individual member of the Township force
As to the second reason advanced by the Commission for
denying parity Mr Richard Chowen Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners of Police gave evidence concerning the nature of
the job of policing that area of the Township patrolled by
-- --- -
I I
- 7 - )
Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
(
two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
- -
- 8 - shy)
be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- ~ shy~
although it is not conclusive of the parity issue I note also
thatwith the greatest respect to the ~houghtful and thorough
argument of Mr~ Stannard I am unable to see in the evidence
presented by the Association any reason to increase salaries in
Sarnia Township subst~~tially above those which haye ~een bargained
for and agree~ by police officers in the immediate vicinity
The Commission on ~~e other hand argued that the
principle of parity was inappropriateand presented evidence aimed
at establishing three reasons why the Sarnia Township salaries
ought not to be as high as those paid in the City of Sarnia
1 Without disparaging the sincerity and devotion ofthepolice officers in Sarnia Township theCommission argued that they were not as wellqualified as police officers of similar rankandexperience in the City of Sarnia
- 2 In the Commissions submission the job of policingthe area in Sarnia Township for which Associationmembers are responsible is not comparable to policework in the City of Sarnia
3 The best comparisions for Sarnia Township salaziesare the small police forces in the same generalarea not including the City of Sarnia~
I ~ In support of the first of these propositions Mr
Garrett called as a witness Staff SuperintendentDonald MacDona~d-
of the Sarnia -Police Department the officer in charge of administr
tion and services with particular responsibility for training
Chief of Police Murray Miller of Sarnia Township was also~caLled as
a witness to provide information about the Township police for
comparison with the information provided about the City police~
Staff Superintendent MacDonald outlined the program of training
assessment and selection used to ensure efficiency in the Sarnia
Police Department The program described was an impressive
efficient operation involving both local training and attendance
- -
- 6 - -
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
II
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
( at outside courses It is a program of which the SarniaPolice
Department can justly be proud and Chief Miller was quick to
admit that no such program existed within the Township police
force Nevertheless I am unable to find this argument persuasive
in dealing with the parity ~ssue ~
- The~Township force consists besides Chief Miller of
one Sergeant and six constables A force of that size could not
possibly mount a training program of the sort described by Staff
Superintendent MacDonald and has no need for a careful assessment
and selection program like that used in Sarnia to handle a much(
larger body of officers in an efficient way This in no way
reflects upon the worth and value of the individual police officersf
in the Township Chief Millers evidence was that basic training
at the Ontario Police College had been provided to the extent
possible to members of the force and that the obstacles in the way
of further training were entirely administrative As well courses
designed to produce specialized expertise are unnecessary in a
township forcesimply because specialized services such as- - -
~reathalizer testing are available from the City of $arnia police
There is no doubt that as a force the City of Samla Police Depa~
~ent isbetter organized and better trained than is the Township
Police DeparL~ent I cannot find however on the evidence before
me th~~ this reflects in any way upon the ability efficienCy or
worth of any individual member of the Township force
As to the second reason advanced by the Commission for
denying parity Mr Richard Chowen Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners of Police gave evidence concerning the nature of
the job of policing that area of the Township patrolled by
-- --- -
I I
- 7 - )
Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
(
two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
- -
- 8 - shy)
be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- -
- 6 - -
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
II
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
( at outside courses It is a program of which the SarniaPolice
Department can justly be proud and Chief Miller was quick to
admit that no such program existed within the Township police
force Nevertheless I am unable to find this argument persuasive
in dealing with the parity ~ssue ~
- The~Township force consists besides Chief Miller of
one Sergeant and six constables A force of that size could not
possibly mount a training program of the sort described by Staff
Superintendent MacDonald and has no need for a careful assessment
and selection program like that used in Sarnia to handle a much(
larger body of officers in an efficient way This in no way
reflects upon the worth and value of the individual police officersf
in the Township Chief Millers evidence was that basic training
at the Ontario Police College had been provided to the extent
possible to members of the force and that the obstacles in the way
of further training were entirely administrative As well courses
designed to produce specialized expertise are unnecessary in a
township forcesimply because specialized services such as- - -
~reathalizer testing are available from the City of $arnia police
There is no doubt that as a force the City of Samla Police Depa~
~ent isbetter organized and better trained than is the Township
Police DeparL~ent I cannot find however on the evidence before
me th~~ this reflects in any way upon the ability efficienCy or
worth of any individual member of the Township force
As to the second reason advanced by the Commission for
denying parity Mr Richard Chowen Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners of Police gave evidence concerning the nature of
the job of policing that area of the Township patrolled by
-- --- -
I I
- 7 - )
Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
(
two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
- -
- 8 - shy)
be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- 7 - )
Association members Not all of the Townships area is patrolled
by the Township Police The area which is patrolled borders on
the City of Sarnia itself and consists of a strip of residential
development running along the boundary of the city and then
stretching along the shore of Lake Huron The remainder of the
Township isupatrclled by the Ontario provincial Polica o ~
The police area is largely residential with some small
industrial development and some coromercialdevelopment including
(
two shopping plazas The population of the area is approximately
7500 with some increase during the summer months due to seasonaL
residence The populatio~ of the area is growingc and major sub-
divisions of several hundred lots each are presently bein~ developed~
There are no hotels in the area and only one licenced premises a
golr course Much of the area is composed of quiet residential
neighbourhoods I but thereis one district an old summercottage
area now being re-developedi which presents a more serious policing
probl~m with high crime rates and problems with alcohol and narcotics
Once again I am unable to find the evidence pres~nted to
me conclusive on the issue of parity It may well b~ that as a -
police force the City of Sarnia Police Department has amore
difficult policing1ob than does the Township Police Departm~nt
The evidence is equivocal on thispoint and that concltisio~ must
be drawn from evidence of such factors as the absence of licenced
establishments in the Township and the more varied neighbourhood
structure of the City Nevertheless no evidence was presented
that indicated clearly that an individual member of the Township
police was required to perform duties in any way less onerous
less demanding or less potentially dangerous than those which might
- -
- 8 - shy)
be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- -
- 8 - shy)
be performed by a policeman of equivalent rank in the City Indeed
there was some evidence that because of the absence of specialized
services Township policemen are often required to perform a more -
varied set of tasks than is the norm for officers assigned to
general duties inside the City including bearing the complete
responsibility for all stages of the investigation ofanycrirnes
reported to them On the state of this evidence I am not prep~ed
to find that there should be a significant difference in salary
between the Township and the City based only on the difference in
the difficulty of the job of policing the respective areas
The third argument ag~inst parity advanced by Mr Garrett
that the most appropriateindicator of the amount to be paid to the
To~mship Police is evidence of the salaries paid in police departshy
ments in small communities of similar size in the area is a point
which I find well taken However both of the two examples advancec
by him on behalf of the conunission as appropriate comparisons are
open to some question In the Town af Petralia which headvanced
as an appropriate municipality for the purposes of comparis~n the ~
1975 salary of a first-class constable is $14OSOOOas compared -
with the City of Sarnia salary for an equival~nt rank of $15250deg9
The salaries paid on that police force are however nearly the
lowest in the tri-county area of Lambton Essex and Ken~ counties
and ha~~ been consistently at or near the bottom of salaries paid
in this area for the last three years A study of the evidence
presented as part of Exhibit I makes it clear that it is not
neces~arily the rule that police forces in small communities
receive lower salaries than those in larger communities Indeed
settlements in some communities smaller than Sarnia Tmvnship in
-- --- ------ -_ ---- - -- - - --- -
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- 9 - )
the tri-county area have exceeded the settlement in the City of
Sarnia this year
since Petralia is some distance away from the City of
Sarnia a better comparison would appear to be the Village of
Point Edward which is virtually surrounded by the Ci~y of Sarnia
and not far frcomSarnia Township Their settlement for 1975 gave
a first-class constable a salary of $1452200 The parties
speculated about the possibility of an adjustment to salaries in
Point Edward this year but the evidence on that point was equivoca
and I shall not take the possibility of any such adjustment into
account in this award It should be noted however that this
sett~ement was reached nearly a year ago as part of a two-year t
contract and is thus less responsive to salary shifts during 1974
and to increas~s in the cost of living during that year than would
be a more recent bargained settlementr such as that in the City of
Sarnia itself
I have thus been unable to accept as conclusive-any of
the arg~~ents against parity introduced by the Commission ~~ t4e
hearing Mr Garrett proposed that the appropriate increas~ was ~
one to offset the effect of inflation that is at about the rateshy
of increase of the cost of living This approach would how~ver
if generally adopted reduce the arbitration process to~ system
of inde=xing Collective bargaining is not merely aimed at
neutralizing inflation it also contains a substantial element of
income redistribution In my view the appropriate guideline for
the arbitrator is not the increase in the cost of living but the
increase in the level of bargained settlements in comparable
employment
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- 10 shygt
In the absence of any evidence compelling me to make a
dramatic departure from the way in which salaries in this region
have been determi~ed in the past I am persuaded that the approach
taken by Mr$ George SP Ferguson QC in 1973 is still a valid
one and that considerable weight must be given to the salaries~
being paid in aTeas immediately adjoining the Township of~ Sarnia- shy
The most important of these areas of course is the City of Sarnia
itself
Having regard to all of the evidence before me I have
come to the conclusion that clause 9(a) of the agreement shall be
as follows for the period January 1 1975 to December 31 1975
9(a) Constables on the force shall receive anannual salary commencing as of January 1st 1974as follows
SergeantConstable Constable
1st Class 2nd Class
$1665000 $1515000 $1325000
Constable 3rd Class $1262500 Cons tabre Constable
4th Class 4th Class
(2nd (1st
6 months) 6 months)
$1107500 $1050000
Thistable represents an increase of roughly 165 over
the 1974 salary schedule Since all of the evidence directed to
m~ used the rank of First Class Constable as a normative exampl~
to assist in understanding salary levels and shifts in other pOlice
forces in the areaand since nothing in the evidence was directed
to any specific problems of any of the lower ranks durin~th~ courSt
of the hearing I have simply applied this increase of 165 across
the entire scale It was argued at the hearing that to take such
a course would result in a Sergeant of the Township police being
paid more than an officer of a similar rank in the City of Sarnia
Police Department and that indeed such an anomaly already existed
in the 1974 salary schedule No evidence was before me as to the
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- 11 -
--
salary of a Sergeant in the City of Sarnia police force nor was
I presented with any evidence as to why a differential might have
been negotiat~d in the past Such a result might in either
extreme of the possible explanations have been achieved through
inadvertence on the one hand or in an attempt to recognize the fact
that a Sergeant in a small police force like this is r~ally theshy
t
second in command and therefore holds a more responsible position
than would a Sergeant in a larger force Having no evidence upon
which to evaluate the justness of a differential if indeed a
differential does exist I have simply applied the across-the-board
settlement of 165 to the salary of the rank of Sergeant aswe~l
This salary increase is intended to keep theSa~nia
-- Township police officers generally in the same range of salaries
as those in the City of Sarnia but ~o recognize that salaries in
the Township have lagged in the past somewhat behind City salaries
Although it has been essential in achieving that result to apply
a substantial percentage increase to last years salary scale I
note that this increase is nQt out of line with the increases
r~centlY granted to ~he civilian employees of the TOnship a g~oup
not represented by any trade union and not as far as appears from-
the evidence befor~me engaged in any bargaining relationsh~p
with the Township - - - Al though it may be obvious from the -layin which the
award is phrased I wish to make clear that the new salary scales
forming part of this award shall be retroactive to the first day
of January 1975 and that members of the force shall be entitled to
(
be paid at the new rate as from that date
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
gt~- 12 shy
Civilian ErnployeesV Agreement
The second matter at issue in this arbitration was the
salary for the single civilian employee of the Sarnia Township
Police Departmento That employee is covered by an agrep~ent dated~
July 4 1974 and stated by its terms to be in effect fromJanuary 1
1974 until December 31 1975 except for clause 14 ~lause 14~
which sets out the salary of the employee was in effect until
December 31 1974
The evidenc~ upon which I have to base a decision concernshy
ing the salary to be awarded to the civilian employee is much more
sparse than the evidence available to me in the first parlof -this
arbitratio1o The 1974 salcry of the civilian ernployeeVc3S$650CLOQA
Evidence of 1975 settlements for civilian employees in oiherpolice
forces indicates a range from $661200 (in the Tov11 of Tilbury) 10
$734000 (in the Village of Point Edward) among the smaller
cOITImilllitiesand $826800 for a Clerk lypist Group 4 in the City
of Sarnia
The Association submitted that this employee has a
considerable amount of personal responsibilityfor the operiEitiop shy
of the police office and for the smooth handling of dep0rtment
business and I dia not understand the Commission to object
strenuously to this characterization of the employees driti~s
The pay increases awarded to other civilian employees of the
To~mship are an appropriate guide for determining the pay increase
for the civilian employee of the Commission Although the appcoshy
priate method of calculating the average increase for those employees
was in dispute between the parties at the arbitration hearing Mr
Chowens evid~nce was that this increase was in the order of 15
I
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy
- -
- 13 - gt
in Inost cases and ~~at the increase was paid from NoveIT~er 1974
instead of January 1975f thus increasing the effective pay
increase to individual employees Mr Chowen also noted that
higher percentage increases were given to secretarial staff at
least partly belause staffing dipoundficulties had been encountered
It is a fair inference from this that a substantial p~y increase
was required to meet the market for secretarial and clerical
personnel in the Sarnia area
( - On all the evidence before meI have concluded that a -
pay increase in the safflegeneral Jcng1 hIgheras but slightly
than that awarded to the policeofficersof the To~mship is in
order Clause 14 of the Civilian Employee Agreamp~ent shal+ therefore
read as f~llows
14 The Employee sh~llreceiVea salary of$760000 effective January 1st 1975r to
r December 31st 197511
Once again for purpos6s of clarity I wish ro point out
that this clauseis retroactive to the first day of Janucuy 1975
and that the employee is entitled to receivethe new salaryips=
from that date -
~-
fi
1-
DATED at Kingston Ontario this f day of June 1975
1
j
i II i - (( (~tL L( -110
) ( Ill (
Arb~ i)ator) - LY~shy