Government brings legislation to impose wage deal on 75,000 public workers
Posted Dec 14, 2015 07:11:01 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – The provincial government has tabled legislation that would impose restrictions on wage increases for 75,000 public servants.
However, Finance Minister Randy Delorey says the bill won’t be proclaimed law unless the results of collective bargaining threaten the government’s fiscal objectives.
Union leaders immediately condemned the move, saying it amounts to a heavy-handed way of imposing a two-year wage freeze.
The legislation, which would not apply to judges and medical residents, would see public workers get a one-per-cent raise in the third year, 1.5 per cent at the start and 0.5 per cent at the end of the fourth year.
The financial package is the same as a deal recently rejected by the province’s 9,000 teachers, which caused one of the province’s largest public-sector unions to delay a ratification vote until mid-January.
The law introduced today by the Liberal government would apply to all public service agencies and Crown corporations, and all bargaining units would be covered by it except those that ratify collective agreements before the law takes effect.
