Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 25, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free june a5 City penalizes workers for time off during flood by Aldo Santin City Hall reporter the cites generosity towards its employees during the flood began and ended at the office the state of emergency required some City employees to work extraordinarily Long hours but for those unfortunate few who were forced to take time off work to protect their the City docked their pay or vacation All we heard during the flood was How great and wonderful the City employees were during the flood but when they really got Down to the City treated their employees worse than anyone said a Norbert woman whose husband is a City her husband lost four Days of Vaca Tion time to cover the time he took off to protect their Norbert she other City employees lost transcripts of civic email obtained by the free press show several new employees were docked pay because they haunt been employed Long enough to earn vacation Paul president of local 500 said chief commissioner Rick Frost issued a memo in the Early Days of the flood warning All civic employees that any time they took off from work would be recovered through forfeited vacation or unpaid we talked about the memo Here and what a Bunch of cheap moist other Large employers gave their people time off but not the Jim president of Rapso which represents Middle managers at City said he wrote Frost a month ago demanding that employees who were forced to evacuate their Homes be compensated for lost Job Frost never Morriss John Angus said the cites pol icy appears to be the words Grinch and Scrooge come to Angus Norbert when City workers put in some times 12hour Days to help during the giving them reasonable time off to Deal with their own flood problems Doest seem Angus said he discussed the Issue with Frost who replied the cites priority was serving the what was going on at employees Homes was a secondary who took several Days off to move out of his Kingston Row is on vacation and could not be reached for Glen Murray said the policy framers failed to learn the lesson of the i worked on sandbag lines with City employees who worked 10 hour Bac Toback for three weeks without any time off and then to penalize its mean spirited and shortsighted Murray fort Rouge a Survey of Large Winnipeg firms found that most allowed their employees a minimum of five Days paid time off to protect their Homes or to help in the flood still like the free Manitoba telecoms ser and Manitoba gave individual managers discretion to give More time off with pay if the situation warranted Bing cherries Vwashington pkg weather permitting bulk wieners regular or pkg 99 coca cola or sprite regular or Canada dry Ginger plus Orange or a w Root 12 x 355 my canned Beans assorted or kidney 398 my potato chips assorted 170 g Phis end pro chum or Lylw when App Cabuta Barb sauce assorted 455 my 1i9 canned mushrooms pieces 284 my Apple beverage 1 l Ketchup 1 l proud to be the official food supplier of the 1997 Canada games these Sale prices effective until june 28 at participating we Reserve the right to limit parches to retail v i Fri j where available v ;