Alison Jones, Canadian Press Posted Friday, May 27, 2022, 11:48 AM EDT Last Updated on Friday, May 27, 2022, 5:10 PM EDT
TORONTO – Negotiations for contracts with more than a million public sector employees in Ontario may look different after the election, with three major parties vowing to end wage cuts and progressive conservatives vowing to bargain fairly.
The NDP, the Liberals and the Greens have promised to repeal legislation that restricts public sector wage increases for workers such as teachers and nurses.
Progressive Conservatives introduced legislation in 2019 to limit increases in compensation for public sector contracts to one percent per year. The regulations were due to take effect over three years, and in 2019 the Tories said it was a time-limited approach to helping close the deficit.
With some big contracts – such as teachers – coming later this year, Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford was asked on Friday if he would commit to not introducing new wage-cutting legislation.
“As these contracts expire … I can tell you right now, we will sit down, negotiate honestly and support our front-line employees.”
But labor law expert Sarah Slyn said that because of the time the three-year term goes into effect for each contract, some public sector workers will still be subject to wage cuts in the coming years, while others will not.
“For a significant number of public sector negotiating units, Bill 124 is a living and ongoing problem,” said Slin, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.
“And very problematic, because for collective agreements that are currently being negotiated or have just been concluded, etc., this is in a context where there is very significant inflation, without seeing an immediate end. So that’s a pretty significant, effective real reduction in compensation. “
The law, known as Bill 124, was in the midst of already tense negotiations with teachers, further complicating negotiations. The nurses also condemned the law for subjecting them to effective cuts while being hailed as heroes of the pandemic.
Progressive conservatives have offered nurses a $ 5,000 retention bonus, but nurses say this is not a substitute for a pay rise and will not help with retention.
“Bill 124 does not allow nurses to freely negotiate a fair and respectful collective agreement and has driven out exhausted, traumatized nurses and health professionals in Ontario in large numbers,” said Catherine Hoy, president of the Ontario Nurses Association, in a statement Friday. .
“Bill 124 has exacerbated an already critical shortage of nurses, and its ‘retention bonus’ is not the meaningful action needed to begin a lasting correction of this shortage.”
NDP leader Andrea Horvat said the controversial legislation, known as Bill 124, was disrespectful.
“You can’t pretend that these last few years haven’t really meant a reduction in wages for these working people, because inflation is as high as it used to be, obviously these people have taken layoffs,” she said on Friday.
“What I’m going to do is bargain with respect and good faith, and they haven’t seen that in this province in a long time.”
Green Party leader Mike Schreiner also said he would repeal the legislation.
Ontario Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca has said repealing legislation will be his top legislative priority if he is prime minister.
“Doug Ford chose to thwart this before the pandemic, which essentially takes away the rights of health and education workers, including nurses and PSW, deprives them of the right to negotiate in a free, fair and open way,” he said.
“We will restore that right.”
When the government of the Progressive Conservatives introduced the legislation, it said about $ 72 billion a year is spent on public sector compensation.
Del Duca said his liberal plan includes about $ 16 billion over four years of emergency funding, which would be enough to absorb the increases in compensation that would come from free bargaining with the public sector.
There is also an ongoing constitutional challenge to Bill 124, although Slinn said wage restraint legislation is a “very difficult thing” to challenge on a constitutional basis.
“If it succeeds, it will be extremely costly for the government,” she said.
Teachers’ unions won a lawsuit several years ago against the liberal government. Legislation known as Bill 115 froze some of their salaries and limited their ability to strike, and the judge ruled that the government had “substantially interfered in meaningful collective bargaining.”
Ontario had to pay more than $ 100 million in union compensation.
Slin said the main difference between Bills 115 and 124 is that the current one is limited in time.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 27, 2022.
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