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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010
Week of June 21, 2004
Catholic school board lays off 21 custodians
By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton
Edmonton Catholic Schools has given pink slips to 21 temporary custodians in a bid to reduce its maintenance costs. The layoffs, effective June 18, will affect 35 schools and save the board $500,000, spokesperson Lori Nagy said June 14.
"Basically we needed to make this move to bring our district more in line with the provincial average for custodian costs."
Edmonton Catholic spends $24.13 per square metre for custodian costs, $4 more than the provincial average of $20.13. The layoffs will bring the cost down to $22.47 per square metre.
"We really needed to bring ourselves in line because that's a very tight budget," Nagy said. "Obviously this is affecting a lot of people's lives but we felt that there was no other choice."
The entire custodial budget for Edmonton Catholic is just over $10.5 million. There are 289 custodians working in the district's 83 schools.
"Obviously this is affecting a lot of people's lives but we felt that there was no other choice."- Lori Nagy |
Nagy said the layoffs were scheduled for last year but were delayed thanks to some extra funding Edmonton Catholic received from Alberta Infrastructure and other sources to keep the positions in place. "So that one-time funding delayed what unfortunately was something that needed to be done."
Hygiene in schools will not suffer because custodians have been transferred to some of the schools most affected by the layoffs to ensure that priority items like the cleaning of washrooms and emptying of garbage cans continue uninterrupted, Nagy noted.
One place that might feel the impact of the layoffs is the district's administration offices, which now will be dusted once a week rather than twice a week.
The laid-off custodians worked anywhere from two to four days a week for Edmonton Catholic. They are currently being offered assistance to find other employment as well as information on what benefits are available to them once the layoffs take effect, Nagy said.
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