A meeting between the province and transit union officials this week aims to restart negotiations with the TTC ahead of next week's strike deadline.
Transit employees may legally walk off the job as early as Tuesday, potentially leaving more than a million riders in the lurch. The main sticking point in negotiations is how injured transit workers are paid. Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 want full wages when they're injured or assaulted on the job.
Currently workers can lose up to 25 per cent of their pay when they're off work injured.
The union walked away from discussions Monday, and the meeting with the provincial mediator, scheduled for Thursday, seeks to get both sides talking again.
"Workplace safety is incredibly important. We take it very seriously. We're going to address that along with all of the issues in the collective bargaining. I'm not prepared to talk about one issue. We've done a lot of things at the TTC that I'm very proud of, and we have more work to do and we'll address this issue along with the other issues through the collective bargaining process," said TTC Chair Adam Giambrone.
ATU Local 113 President Bob Kinnear sounded less optimistic a deal could be reached.
"When the people you're negotiating with are unresponsive to every single issue that we've brought forward, how can you negotiate," he noted.
"What we are suggesting is that if we are injured in the dangerous jobs that we do, that there should be no financial penalty or no financial burden placed on that employee and his family."
Kinnear adds though that if the two sides make progress with the help of the mediator the union is willing to continue beyond Monday's strike deadline. The two sides are trying to hammer out a three-year deal.
What's involved in conciliation?