The provincial government putting a cap on future wage increases it will give public sector workers.
Legislation put forward by Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy will cap increases at one per cent per year for the next three years.
“What we tabled (Wednesday) we if we think is reasonable, it’s fair, and I want to be clear, sustainable,” says Bethlenfalvy.
Bethlenfalvy says the legislation does not impose a wage freeze, a wage rollback or lead to job loss.
Labour unions call it an attack on the collective bargain process and workers.
Bethlanfavly disagrees. He says the collective bargaining process is still respected.
This is absolutely a path that we think is a responsible way to go forward. We made a campaign commitment to preserve those frontline worker jobs in the best way we could. So this is part of that commitment.”
He notes at $72 billion annually, public sector employee compensation accounts for nearly half of all government expenditure.
Bethlanfavly says he also no intention of ramming the legislation through.
“If we did not take this action thousands of jobs could be at risk. As we stated clearly, our government is committed to protecting front-line workers and the vital services they deliver.”
