The TTC says it’s being forced to cancel scheduled weekend subway closures after the transit workers’ union ended an agreement allowing members to work overtime.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross confirmed Wednesday the closure between St. Clair and Lawrence stations on Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) planned for the upcoming weekend of May 19 and 20 has been put off. Last weekend the agency also postponed a planned service suspension between Sheppard West and Lawrence West on the same line.

Transit riders may welcome the news that they won’t be inconvenienced by the shutdowns, but the TTC says the closures are necessary to allow for work on major projects, including the installation of a new signalling system designed to increase capacity on Line 1, and the construction of the $5.3-billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

“There are ... long-term costs if we let these closures slide any more. It could have an impact on projects,” Ross said.

Last month, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, which represents more than 10,000 transit workers, announced it wouldn’t renew an agreement that allows members to work 64 hours a week, instead of the 48 hours spelled out in the Employment Standards Act. The agreement expired at the end of April.

Without the overtime authorization, the TTC doesn’t have enough workers to operate the shuttle buses required to replace subway service during a closure.

The union and the TTC are in the midst of contract negotiations, which have gone to arbitration after the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement.

But Local 113 says the overtime decision has nothing to do with the impasse. Kevin Morton, secretary-treasurer for the union, said it didn’t renew the agreement because it believes the TTC has been using overtime provisions to leave some positions vacant, with the ultimate goal of contracting out the work.

“We believe this is because they have an agenda to privatize, and have refrained from hiring the proper staffing levels over the past few years,” Morton said.

The TTC has described the overtime agreement as mutually beneficial for the transit agency and its workers, because allows employees to earn extra income.

Ross said the TTC plans to hire at least 100 new operators on top of its existing complement of about 5,000, and by July the agency should have enough workers to operate shuttle buses.

But “every closure between now and when we get the new hires are at risk,” Ross said, adding that the agency is making decisions about the planned shutdowns on “a week-by-week basis.”

Not counting this weekend’s cancelled closure, there are six more shutdowns planned between now and July 1, and two late subway openings that also require shuttle buses.

Ross said the TTC will have to figure out how to reschedule any cancelled closures, which could involve doubling up on some weekend suspensions, or adding a closure to a weekend when one wasn’t previously planned.

The subway closure planned for this weekend was one of 24 service suspensions scheduled this year to enable work on a new station for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT beneath the existing Eglinton TTC station.

The Crosstown work can’t be done safely while subways are running, according to Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins, and will have to be rescheduled.

Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency in charge of the Crosstown, had been working on a plan to use GO Transit buses for shuttle service, but “we couldn’t get it together in time for this weekend,” Aikins said.

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“It’s really important that we keep (the Crosstown) on schedule,” she said.

“We’re very determined to figure out a solution for this and keep it moving.”

The LRT line is schedule to open by 2021.

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