Employees at the Nipissing and Parry Sound Children's Aid Society have rejected the latest contract offer and will be in a legal lockout or strike position two days before Christmas.
A CUPE news release says the offer "fails to address the persistent issues that hinder the delivery of high-quality child welfare services in the north".
The union says the vote, supervised by the Ministry of Labour, was forced by Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS in an effort to circumvent the collective bargaining process.
Of 120 workers who cast a ballot, 96 percent rejected the offer.
CUPE says overwhelming caseloads at Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS have emerged as a major issue that could cause vulnerable children to “fall through the cracks.”
"Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS doesn’t fill staff vacancies or provide cover for workers on leave, adding to extreme caseload pressures on those remaining. Yet the society’s executive director herself said yesterday that you can’t talk about workload in isolation from sick leave, that the two go together,” said CUPE 2049 president Debbie Hill.
The child welfare and support workers of Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS are in a legal lockout or strike position on December 23.
