The Ontario NDP has fired one of its staff members and stopped paying two others salary and benefits after they complained of human rights violations by their NDP MPP bosses, the workers’ union says.

The Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE), which represents Ontario NDP staff, issued a blistering news release Tuesday accusing the party under Leader Andrea Horwath of secretly “attacking” its own staff while publicly supporting workers’ rights.

The workers had complained about poor treatment from NDP MPPs Paul Miller and Monique Taylor, who were both re-elected in June.

In April, Horwath said she would await the outcome of several union grievances and Human Right Tribunal complaints before deciding what action — if any — to take with the two Hamilton-area MPPs.

But after agreeing to resolve the complaints after the election, the NDP then jumped ahead of planned arbitration dates and terminated one worker on parental leave and told two others they can file for long-term disability if they want to get paid, the union says.

“This is just cynical; the NDP is putting politics ahead of workers. These are serious allegations of human rights violations that need to be addressed,” COPE Ontario Director Patty Clancy said in the statement. “Their only goal was to keep it out of the press during the election. They’ve demonstrated that the ONDP has no real commitment to workers’ rights. They acted in bad faith when they agreed to this arbitration process and then turned around and punished our members.”

The NDP was said to be particularly upset over negative media coverage it received which included a Toronto Sun article about employee Todd White. He claimed in a human rights complaint that he was harassed and demeaned by Miller for taking parental leave.

White’s lawyer, Wade Poziomka, said his client was terminated on Aug. 20 while on parental leave.

“Frankly, the assertions made by MPP Miller about the damage to his reputation and the distress to his family are surprising, given that his spouse, Carole Paikin-Miller has decided to run in the upcoming election in Ward 5 for (the Hamilton-Wentworth Public School Board). Ward 5 is the riding in which Mr. White currently serves as trustee and is seeking re-election,” Poziomka said.

Meg Atkinson, legal counsel for the NDP Caucus, said it strongly disagrees with COPE’s media release, calling it factually incorrect and intentionally misleading.

“The NDP Caucus maintains that it has not violated the collective agreement or any other law, and has always been prepared to follow the agreed-to process of grievances and labour arbitration under the collective agreement with COPE to resolve workplace disputes,” said a statement from Atkinson. “Prior to publicizing their news release, COPE provided Caucus with a draft and asked for the reinstatement of pay for the affected members in exchange for not releasing its statement to the media. The NDP Caucus does not believe that threatening to make false claims in the media is an acceptable way for anyone to attempt to access additional benefits or payments outside the usual procedures.”

The NDP caucus does not find that COPE’s actions are conductive to productive labour relations, especially with arbitration scheduled in the near future, Atkinson said.

aartuso@postmedia.com