December 12th, 2003 Maple Ridge Times
Layoffs prompt calls for SPCA boycott
By David Carrigg
The union representing some B.C. SPCA employees is advising people not to donate cash to the troubled society.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees is reacting to the SPCA's decision last month to lay off 28 front-line workers at B.C. branches - including the shelter in Maple Ridge.
In radio ads starting this week and running until Christmas, CUPE suggests that people who want to contribute to the society donate animal food and volunteer their services, rather than giving cash.
"Tangible donations reach the animals directly and aren't used to pay off severance packages or start up marketing campaigns that don't directly benefit the animals," said acting CUPE president Mark Hancock.
He insists the campaign wasn't just prompted by the layoffs, but by concerns about lack of accountability and poor management in the wake of two layoffs of Society executive directors and the layoff of several other managers.
"What the Society has failed to mention when they laid off union staff is the number of management staff that were recently hired, then fired, and the fact this organization has paid out over $800,000 in severance packages in the last few years."
Positions that have been eliminated include chief development officer, regional manager for Vancouver Island, information technology specialist, animal health officer and several contract jobs.
Craig Daniell, acting executive director of the B.C. SPCA, said the society has lost about $10 million in the past three years because of high union wages and the loss of animal control contracts, forcing the layoffs of some unionized and management staff. The losses were $2.6 million in 2001, $4.5 million in 2003 and an estimated $3.5 million in 2003.
Daniell, who was employed at the end of 2002 as animal cruelty investigations manager, said some of the extra management positions were added after head office took control of the Society's branches in 2001.
The other positions were created during the first six months of this year.
"When I took over as acting CEO [in July], I had a chance to get a feeling for the extent of what was going on. It became apparent that where the Society was going was unsustainable in the long term," Daniell said.
"I looked at a number of positions of people that had only just been hired on in management positions and I began eliminating those positions. I started reducing expenditures in non-crucial services."
If the Society had not made those cuts, the 2003 deficit would have been about $6 million instead of $3.5 million.
The B.C. SPCA's troubles began in 1996, when Douglas Hooper was appointed executive director of the B.C. SPCA's Vancouver branch at a salary of $66,000 a year.
After working for six months, Hooper got former Vancouver branch president Michael Dear to approve a pay and benefits hike to $88,000, without consulting the board.
Then, in October 1997, Hooper went to Dear with a new contract, including a wages and benefits package of $96,000 and a condition that if Hooper was terminated, he would get two years' severance.
That deal was also approved by Dear, again without consulting the board. Several more pay increases were approved by Dear, and by the time Hooper was fired in August 2001, he was earning $204,000.
Shortly after Hooper's January 2001 pay hike, the Vancouver branch lost animal control contracts in Coquitlam and North Vancouver.
Hooper subsequently sued the Society for wrongful dismissal and an out-of-court settlement was reached in April of this year.
After Hooper's firing, the Society launched some reforms, centralizing control of its 32 B.C. branches at head office Vancouver.
Doug Brimacombe, who was employed as executive director of the B.C. SPCA's provincial office in 1999, oversaw those changes, at an annual salary of more than $100,000, and was responsible for employing the managers that were recently laid off.
However, in May, Brimacombe himself was let go, with no public explanation from the Society.
Daniell said the Society has maintained core staffing at its branches and shelters, as dictated by its 10-year collective agreement with CUPE.
The CUPE campaign will ask people to bring canned and dry food to B.C. SPCA branches and to offer to walk and help with the animals, but not to provide cash donations.
"Tangible donations reach the animals directly and aren't used to pay off severance packages or start up marketing campaigns that don't directly benefit the animals," Hancock said.
Daniell said he's disappointed by CUPE's campaign because he had offered to meet with the union to see if it could suggest ways to cut costs.
Daniell has promised the board of directors that the society will not lose money in 2004.
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