A spike in sick time from transit drivers resulted in a long list of cancellations for buses on Thursday, according to Jim McDonald, director of Saskatoon Transit.
Twelve operators called in sick, up from five of the 175 who work on an average day, McDonald said.
“And nine of those twelve phoned in after 6 this morning, which caused us a little bit of difficulty in getting everybody into the seats to get out on the roads as much as possible,” he added.
READ MORE: Saskatoon Transit routes disrupted Thursday by ATU 615 job action
Eleven school route runs or ‘loops’ and 21 regular route runs were cancelled during afternoon and evening service. Overcrowding was expected on 13 regular routes.
On Monday, the transit service began transporting high school students to malls before being shuttled to school. The effort was meant to counteract work-to-rule and overtime refusal by union members.
“That’s why we’re experiencing all the trouble with the high school routes today. That was based on the system as it was with basically five operators on sick,” McDonald said.
Saskatoon Transit normally asks its employees for doctors’ notes after calling in sick.
“For those people that are booking off sick – if it’s their first time ever – we have no course or reason to suspect anything is going on,” McDonald said.
READ MORE: Both sides stand firm in Saskatoon Transit contract dispute
Transit officials haven’t ruled out hiring part-time workers during the dispute.
“At this point in time we’re still investigating all of the options. We have not made any determinations to do that or not,” McDonald said.
“We’re still looking at it, quite frankly.”
In a news release late Thursday, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 615 stated it “has not suggested anyone book sick to intentionally disrupt service.”
ATU Local 615 has not expanded its job action beyond overtime and work to rule, according to the release.
“Our operators are human and it is currently cold and flu season, our operators are exposed to higher than normal amounts of people in a confined area for extended periods and they get sick it happens.”
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