Government to ask public sector workers to take wage cut

EDMONTON, AB — The province is asking public sector workers to accept a pay cut when wage arbitration talks resume later this week.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Finance Minister Travis Toews says the government will be asking arbitrators to impose a two per cent wage cut for collective bargaining agreements that are being negotiated between unions and the province.

The government had previously asked for a wage freeze for 2019. Some of the unions are asking for wage increases between three and eight per cent.

Wage reopening was set for this year, but the government passed Bill 9 this summer, which delayed arbitration until October 31. The decision was made to allow the province to look further into its finances.

“We cannot ask Alberta taxpayers to fund public-sector pay raises during a time when far too many workers in the private sector have lost their jobs and many others have seen significant pay cuts in recent years,” Toews said in a statement.

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Toews says the government has respect for the work public sector workers do, but says public sector pay accounts for more than 50 per cent of the province’s expenses, and Alberta’s public sector wages are higher than in comparable provinces.

“We are all in this together as Albertans,” Toews said in the statement. “We all have to do our part to live within our means, and that includes government. Our MLAs have rolled back their salaries by five per cent and the Premier has cut his salary by 10 per cent. This is on top of five per cent cuts to MLA salaries a few years ago.”

Affected workers include nurses, hospital support staff, prison guards and sheriffs.

The United Nurses of Alberta released a statement Tuesday afternoon, noting they are not currently involved in bargaining with the Government of Alberta, noting their arbitration with Alberta Health Services and other health care employers is set to take place November 22 and 23.

“We expect to proceed on those dates, and we anticipate the employer will bargain in good faith as required by law and that the arbitrator will conduct himself in accordance with the law,” Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta, said in a statement.

The UNA says it is examining Toews’ statement, and is “carefully considering appropriate ways to ensure its members are treated fairly and mindfully of their fundamental rights in Canadian law.”

-With Files from The Canadian Press.