Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Executive Summary
� Accountability for labour relations and service delivery should be appropriately distributed.
Governments, BPS employers and bargaining agents should bear responsibility for
bargaining outcomes. All BPS management and employees should bear responsibility
for delivering high-quality public services and value for public money; and
� Broader system changes should be part of a larger vision, in which labour relations plays a
part, but is not an end in and of itself.
These principles should be applied to a number of key issues that recur in labour-management
relations in the public sector.
The goal of balance means the government should settle the issue of essential services and
change the interest arbitration system. An independent working group should determine which
services are essential and how disputes should be resolved. The interest arbitration system
has come under increasing scrutiny and attack. We do not find the system to be broken,
though it can be improved. Arbitrators are likely to follow the lead of public-sector employers
adopting tough, but fair, stances in negotiations. Among changes that would help:
an independent tribunal or commission should manage a panel or roster of independent
arbitrators, set time limits for each arbitration and require arbitrators to provide clear
reasons for their decisions.
Ensuring that public services are delivered more effectively and efficiently is primarily a
management problem. Most BPS workers are well educated, highly competent and dedicated,
but the system does not measure productivity well, nor does it encourage active steps to
improve it. This can and must change. The government should provide a zero budget increase
for wage costs; ministries and agencies will then have to drive out inefficiencies to absorb any
wage increase. Bumping provisions unduly impede the move towards a progressive and
efficient public service; these should be modified. Concerns about successor rights should not
stop privatizations or amalgamations; inherited agreements do not live forever. The Ontario
Labour Relations Board should be given expanded authority to encourage bargaining
structures that support the delivery of quality and effective public services. The government
should also encourage further rationalization of BPS bargaining. The province should move to
a smaller number of bargaining units and more centralized bargaining. The government should
set up a labour relations information bureau to collect data relevant to employers and unions,
especially measures of productivity.
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