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N.L. government invests in 18 new Crown attorneys amid severe staffing crunch
Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Minister Bernard Davis announced Wednesday afternoon that the provincial government is investing nearly $24 million to improve the province's justice system.... The investment comes after CBC News reported in numerous stories that Crown attorneys in the province were "suffocating" from overwhelming workloads and a critical staffing shortage.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-14
Newfoundland to add more Crown prosecutors
Newfoundland and Labrador has agreed to hire more Crown lawyers following cries of a shortage of prosecutors in the province. The “multi-year investment” will include the hiring of 18 new Crown lawyers, according to a news release.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-13
Critical shortage of Crown attorneys has ‘gone on way too long’ and is hurting public safety
The Canadian Association of Crown Counsel, an umbrella group for thousands of Crown attorneys and government lawyers across the country is calling for a big boost in the number of provincial prosecutors in Newfoundland and Labrador.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-13
Most criminal cases in Ontario now ending before charges are tested at trial
More than half of the criminal charges laid by police in Ontario never make it to trial, according to data from Statistics Canada. The numbers paint a troubling picture of the province’s justice system. More judges, staff, prosecutors and courtrooms needed, says Crown attorneys’ association.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-12
Crown attorneys in N.L. are ‘crumbling’ under their workload, and it’s putting the public at risk
Shawn Patten, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Crown Attorneys Association, believes Happy Valley-Goose Bay report recommendations could make workload 'untenable'.... "And right now our office is doing its best to make public safety a priority. But we're crumbling. Our foundation is crumbling."
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-06
PC Justice Critic Calling for Review of Staffing Levels in Crown Attorney’s Office
The Newfoundland and Labrador Crown Attorneys Association says some prosecutors have up to 200 cases on their plate, and sometimes work until early morning preparing for a trial. PC Justice Critic Helen Conway Ottenheimer believes that Crown attorneys are too important a player in the justice system to allow shortcomings in staffing to impact their ability to always be at the top of their game.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-08-12
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The performance pay saga reaches a settlement
30-10-2018
A quick recap: The issue is the prorating of performance pay in relation to pre-promotion period for the year in which lawyers are promoted. If a lawyer was eligible for performance pay and was promoted during the year, the Employer, rather than pay out a prorated performance pay for the period pre-promotion, paid out nothing at all regardless of your performance rating for the year. The AJC originally filed a grievance in 2011 and in response to that grievance, TB had conceded in the context of the adjudication hearing that pre-promotion service should be recognized. Unfortunately, the adjudicator originally disregarded TB's concession in his decision of 2015, requiring the AJC to file an application for judicial review, which eventually resulted on December 22, 2016 in a remedy limited to the right to pre-promotion performance pay for the year 2010-2011.
Notwithstanding that the wording on eligibility was not restricted in time under the performance pay provisions of the collective agreement, the AJC found itself forced to re-litigate the question once again.
Thus, the AJC filed another policy grievance on July 27th 2016 . The hearing was scheduled for October 2018.
We are pleased to announce that we now have a signed Memorandum of Settlement on this matter with TB. While we consider this another win for team AJC, we can't help but be concerned with the time it takes for us to see our relentless efforts bear fruit in the face of the systemic access to justice problems as they relate to scheduling delays at the FPSLREB, the interpretation issues that departments have been creating without first obtaining interpretation or application direction from TB and the time it takes for TB to turn its mind to resolving issues mere hours or days before a scheduled hearing. Like our fight on standby duty, this one has taken us 8 years to resolve in your favour.
Now that TB has agreed, performance pay will be paid to all lawyers who are promoted within a year and who meet the requirements for the payment of performance pay before being promoted, on a pro-rated basis from April 1st of that year to the date immediately preceding the promotion, retroactive to 2011-2012.
This means that further pay adjustments to those who were promoted since 2011-2012 are in order.
Like you, we do wonder why this policy grievance was even necessary, but assure all our members that we will continue to hold the employer to account for as long as it is required.
We would like to thank all the members who assisted the AJC in providing the facts to make our case.
Next steps are set out in the Memorandum of Settlement and require the drafting of a communique to be issued to all those affected. Please stay tuned as more information will follow.
Should you have questions regarding this settlement, please contact your regional Governing Council representative.
https://ajc-ajj.net/news/article/791/The-performance-pay-saga-reaches-a-settlement/
