Background:

In 2000, the Transit Windsor Board of Directors approved a salary market comparison survey for their non-union group to be conducted every three (3) years targeting the 50th market percentile. Given the various restructuring efforts by the City of Windsor that affected Transit Windsor, the surveys were not completed. In late 2009, Transit Windsor Board of Directors reaffirmed their direction to Administration to conduct a salary market comparison for their non-union group every three (3) years, similar to the approach conducted by the City of Windsor for their non-union staff.

The above requested Salary Market Review commenced in 2011 and the recommendations were presented for approval to the Transit Windsor Board of Directors in October 2013. The recommendation was accepted and the salaries of the non union group were adjusted to align with the 50th percentile. The recommendation to complete the salary market review every two (2) years was also accepted.

In 2015, a Salary Market Review was completed for 2013 and 2014. With the inclusion of the negotiated increases provided to the non union employee group, there was no salary adjustment required to maintain the 50th percentile for 2013 and 2014.

In 2017, a Salary Market Review was completed for 2015 and 2016. With the inclusion of the negotiated increases provided to the non union employee group, there was no salary adjustment required to maintain the 50th percentile for 2015. In 2016, the findings of the survey required a 0.7% adjustment to the non union salary schedule to continue to align with the 50th percentile.

Discussion:

Prior to starting the salary market review for 2017-2018, administration met with Colette Annetts, of Annetts and Associates (the “consultant”) to discuss the previous 2015-2016 recommendation, which was to review the comparator organizations for Transit to ensure appropriate matches. To better align Transit with its comparator groups, the Consultant was asked to review the Canadian Urban Transit Associations (CUTA) data and determine the most appropriate comparators. The Consultant recommended removing three comparator municipalities, namely Thunder Bay, Oakville and Mississauga and replacing them with Guelph and Kingston. The change was recommended as it better aligned Transit Windsor to comparator municipalities when looking at such criteria as ridership, number of buses and number of employees.

Council approved the changes from “Appendix A” as recommended by the consultant, administration and the Steering Committee to the comparator municipalities for the 2017-2018 salary market review (Council Report S 57/2019).

The salary market comparison was subsequently completed and the consultant’s summary report is attached as “Appendix B” for review and reference. The following market comparators were used: