City unions call for third-party audit

Four unions representing more than 700 City of Brandon employees are calling for a third-party audit after experiencing 18 months of payroll, pension and wage deduction errors.

The four unions representing the employees — Canadian Union of Public Employees local 69, the Brandon Police Association, the Brandon Professional Firefighter Paramedics Association and the Amalgamated Transit Union local 1505 — rarely work together on a single issue.

It might be the first time in the city’s history, said Gage Wood, president of the union that represents firefighters and paramedics in the city.

Wood said the union’s members began experiencing payroll issues in mid-2025 after their contract was re-signed. Members had been either overpaid, undertaxed or charged higher union fees.

By January of this year, “people were getting the wrong rate of pay, and we had people that were retiring that were really concerned that their pension might not be correct,” Wood said.

In March, “I started talking to other unions and they were saying they were having even more issues,” he said.

CUPE members had also been experiencing similar issues with their paycheques after their contact was re-signed in May 2025, said Mike Atkins, president of CUPE 69 in Brandon.

A member of CUPE was allegedly paid an additional $14,000 on their paycheque.

“Members shouldn’t have to be scanning their paycheque to make sure it’s proper,” Atkins said.

The unions representing police and transit drivers claimed members were also experiencing issues with payroll and by April, all four unions had expressed numerous concerns to city administration.

The city didn’t provide clear answers to members with pay stub discrepancies, said Bruce Verhelst, president of the Brandon Police Association.

“Some members were getting deducted too much money for things like pensions. Some weren’t paying enough and we had numerous people that were not getting paid at the correct level of pay … as well as the union dues were not being consistently taken off,” Verhelst said.

He said this is an issue the union has experienced weekly since he became aware of it 18 months ago.

“I think somebody’s having issues every pay stub,” Verhelst said. “I know we’ve had union due issues every two weeks.”

Two former payroll employees with the city — who spoke to the Sun on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions — are warning all city employees that their paycheques could be incorrect.

“Anybody working with the city now, please, please, please check over your pay stubs,” said one of the former employees, who had alerted the human resources department about the $14,000 over payment.

Since early 2025, the two employees claim, city management would “sign union documents without advising payroll,” which led to the numerous errors.

“It’s concerning that these are the people who were and still are handling the employees,” said one of the former employees.

City manager Dave Wardrop said the city began conducting an audit with a third party after concerns were raised, but declined to specify when, or which concerns prompted the audit.

“We will be undertaking a review and that has happened and we’ve made good progress on it,” Wardrop said. “We’ve advised them that we will be reporting back to them with the findings probably within the next month.”

Wardrop declined to identify the third party conducting the review.

Verhelst said the police union has been told about the audit, but no one has contacted him with any details regarding it since mid-September.

“They’re still waiting for information, and we haven’t heard anything since,” Verhelst said.

“We haven’t been given any real information on where they’re at, other than they’re waiting on information,” he said.

Wood said he received a definitive answer about a third-party audit after contacting council.

“But that was in August, and we’re in October now. So yeah, it doesn’t seem like a priority at the very least because we’ve been requesting this for six months already,” Wood said.

The transit union provided an email statement calling the payroll issues “real financial concerns for working people and their families.”

“Everyone affected deserves timely answers, a clear plan to resolve the outstanding issues, and confidence that the city is taking the matter seriously and what they are doing to ensure this issue does not occur in the future,” the statement said.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said he is aware of the concerns raised by the unions, but deferred questions to the city manager.

» rgerrard@brandonsun.com