Toronto civic strike meant big paydays for non-strikers

While the garbage piled up in the parks, Toronto's long civic strike meant big paydays last summer for managers working overtime to provide skeleton services.

When Ontario issued its annual "sunshine list" of well paid public servants across the province on Wednesday, the city was moved to issue a statement explaining why a lot more of its staff were on it.

"As a result of the 39-day labour disruption, approximately 428 non-union employees who were responsible for providing critical services who earn less than $100,000 in their base salary, earned in excess of $100,000 in 2009 as a result of being required to work overtime," it said.

Among those who broke the $200,000 barrier was Lou Di Geronimo, general manager of the city's water and sewage systems, who earned $222,577, up from $198,987 in 2008. That compares with mayor David Miller's earnings of $166,924 last year and $163,017 in 2008.

519 more city employees make the list

By law, all organizations that get public funding from the Ontario government must disclose the names, positions, salaries and taxable benefits of employees paid $100,000 or more in a calendar year.

"In 2009, the City of Toronto employed 2,071 staff who earned a salary of over $100,000." the statement said.  "The definition of salary includes all earnings received in the year and may include payments, overtime, stand-by pay, vacation payouts, severance payments, etc.

"This represents 4.6 per cent of the City's workforce and is an increase of 519 employees from 2008. Had the labour disruption not occurred, the City of Toronto would only have an additional 91 employees on the 2009 salary disclosure list."

The tallies do not count  employees of the city's agencies, boards and commissions, including the Toronto Police Service, the Toronto Transit Commission and the Toronto Public Library, it added.  Those bodies "are responsible for their own budgets and the salaries of their employees," it said.