TORONTO -
Nearly 200 transit employees in York Region have voted to strike next Monday if a contract agreement isn't reached.
Workers for Veolia Transportation, which runs the region's Viva bus service, say the major stumbling block in reaching an agreement is the employer's policy on sickness.
The union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, says Veolia fires workers who are off sick for a short time unless they provide a note from a doctor.
It says workers don't get an allowance of paid sick days without doctors' certificates and calls that irregular in the industry.
Union president Bob Kinnear says bus drivers are frequently exposed to common illnesses and it both endangers the public and overloads the health-care system to require them to seek medical attention.
The union also wants a new agreement to address shift assignments where workers can put in as much as 56 hours a week without overtime pay, and say wages are lower than other Toronto-area transit systems.
