Dear Mayor and/or Councillor:
Workers in public safety occupations have difficult, demanding jobs. When a citizen in our community has to call 911, paramedics, firefighters and police are ready to respond, whatever the crisis may be.
Deservedly, police and firefighters in Ontario have a normal retirement age of 60. But paramedics do not. Paramedics are the only employees of the three designated public safety occupations who have to wait until age 65 for their well-earned retirement.
Paramedics and their unions agree: the women and men who provide emergency services should all have the right to retire at age 60 with an unreduced pension. Paramedics deserve equity with police and firefighters. They want to move towards this goal now. To do this, there are three steps in this process:
The first step has been accomplished. In 2005, the federal government designated paramedics as a Public Safety Occupation alongside police and firefighters.
The government recognized that, like police and firefighters, paramedics provide a public service often under hazardous, high stress conditions. They respond to emergencies, provide medical services and transport patients to hospitals and medical facilities.
We need your help to complete the second step. Ontario’s paramedics are asking Ontario municipalities and the Sponsors Corporation of OMERS to support changes to the OMERS pension allowing paramedics to retire with full pension at 60, should they be able to bargain this with their employers.
This change would give union locals representing paramedics the right to bargain the third step, a normal retirement age of 60 (NRA 60) in their workplaces.
Fairness demands it: With paramedics designated as a federal Public Safety Occupation alongside police and firefighters, there is no reason paramedics should be denied the right to negotiate retirement at age 60.
Please request the AMO representatives on the OMERS Sponsors Corporation;
- Marianne Love
- Bruce Stewart
- Garth Pierce
- John Fleming
- Brian Cain
- Charlie Macaluso and
- Joe Aitchison
to make the needed changes to support a normal retirement age of 60 for Ontario’s hardworking paramedics.
With Sincere Appreciation,
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Draft Council Resolution for Presentation
http://www.opseu.org/bps/health/ambulance/NRA60/draft%20resolution.doc
Municipal AMO action letter request
http://www.opseu.org/bps/health/ambulance/NRA60/letterNRA60councillor%20to%20AMO.doc