Disgruntled employees with Dilico Anishinabek Family Care who took to the picket lines Monday say they want their caseload more manageable.
More than a hundred employees were at the Dilico building on Anemki Place within the Fort William First Nation community as well as the former Heath school on James Street. Similar striking is also taking place in other Dilico facilities including Marathon and Nipigon.
The employees, who are members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers of Canada, rejected the recent offer from Dilico by 71 per cent last month.
Many employees in the city held signs that read “high caseload equals poor childcare” and chanted “high caseloads have got to go”.
CEP Local 70 president Candace Lavalley said they have been without a contract since March last year and there’s still a number of issues that need to be addressed. The high number of caseloads, the way employees are paid for being on-call and for their overtime are some of the main issues.
Lavalley said caseloads for family services range around 25 per person but some employees have as high as 32. The caseloads sometimes includes multiple clients. Lavalley said that those who work exclusively with children are usually handling around 20 clients.
“We have very committed people here and they want to do well for their clients and the children,” she said.
“They aren’t given that opportunity to do so because of their workloads. We had one fellow who had two families in his caseload that had 19 children between them and we had to see all 19 of those children once every month. That’s just two cases. So you can imagine what kind of stress these workers are under.
“We’re not all about the money – this is about working conditions and caseloads are our number one problem.”
Lavalley said that they would like to see the number of caseloads capped off at around 19.
She added that it’s up to Dilico to bring the matter back to the negotiation table.
Dilico’s acting executive director Darcia Borg couldn’t speak on any specifics but believes the two parties are far apart in terms of coming to an agreement. She said that the company offered wage increases, improved benefits and isn’t asking for concession.
“The reality of it is the same with everyone in the sector,” she said. “We’re caught between limited funds constantly and there’s increasing demands. The people are that affected by this strike are not businessmen. They’re the children who are our clients. We can’t operate under a deficit.”
Borg said that the issue of high caseloads has never come up officially and currently, Dilico’s caseload meets the Children’s Aid Society standards. She said she wasn’t aware of any CAS organizations capping caseloads and if it was an issue they would look at it.
Dilico receives funding from both the provincial and federal governments and offers childcare as well as family services and addiction treatment. Borg said that their funding is fixed for the next three years.
She said that only essential services will be provided and those seeking help with their addictions should seek help at other agencies.
The essential services will be focused primarily on child protection.
Borg wanted to stress that despite the strike if any child needs protection that individuals should contact Dilico immediately.
