Manitoba Crown attorneys push labour grievance
Crown attorneys in Manitoba will proceed with a nearly three-year-old labour grievance against the province, citing unmanageable caseloads that are causing work-related illnesses and burnout, CBC News has learned.
The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys said Wednesday the move comes after months of waiting for Justice Minister Dave Chomiak to act on a prosecutions branch management-employee report on workloads.
The report recommends hiring 70 additional Crown lawyers and 70 support staff over the next seven years, nearly doubling the size of the department.
MACA spokeswoman Lisa Carson said employees are frustrated by the lack of appropriate response from government.
She said in a letter sent out Wednesday that the province has committed to hiring the equivalent of 8.5 full-time Crown lawyers this year, and nine in 2010.
But it's not enough, Carson said.
"Collectively on the part of the membership there is disappointment, and there's an anxiousness to have a resolution to this problem," Carson said.
MACA officially filed a grievance in December 2006 but chose instead to try to deal with workload issues through the establishment of the working group which drew up the report and its recommendations.
In addition to new staff, Carson said, the group's report recommends the average caseload for Crowns be much less than the current average of 319.
Carson said some Crown prosecutors working in rural Manitoba's circuit courts carry upwards of 500 cases at a time.
In addition to increased work-related fatigue and stress, Carson said, there's also increasing danger that criminal prosecutions and other serious cases will suffer from mistakes made by overworked lawyers.
Carson added she's hopeful Chomiak will take notice and act on the report's recommendations, adding Crown attorneys are prepared to let the matter be decided by an arbitrator.
Other provinces facing cuts
Don Slough, Manitoba's assistant deputy attorney general, said provincial justice officials are aware that Crown attorney workloads are high and it's MACA's right to move forward with the grievance.
But, he said, workloads for Crown lawyers in Saskatchewan and Alberta are similar to those in Manitoba.
He also said Manitoba is adding staff while other places in Canada are cutting back.
"Most of them are facing either cuts or stagnation ... I think all of them would be jealous of the influx of resources we've got in the next two years," Slough said.
He said the 8.5 new positions promised for this year have already been hired and he called their addition to the department "significant" in gloomy economic times.
"In this current climate, this is a step forward."