Union rejects 11%
The Canadian Press – July 5, 2022 / 18:19 | History: 374368
Photo: The Canadian Press
The provincial flag of British Columbia waves at a flagpole in Ottawa on July 3, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Adrian Wyld
The British Columbia government says it is offering public service workers a new three-year contract with wage increases of nearly 11 per cent and a signing bonus of up to $ 2,500, but the union says it is planning action labor.
The government Public Services Agency says it is working to reach a fair and reasonable agreement with the 33,000-member BC General Employees Union, but talks on contracts have broken down and the union says it is making plans to vague.
Bobbi Sadler, deputy minister of the agency, says in a statement to union members that with possible labor action in the future, he wants to share directly with them the employer’s salary offer.
An earlier BCGEU statement says initial discussions were positive, but the government refused to counter the union’s latest wage proposal and the talks came to a standstill.
Union president Stephanie Smith says a cost-of-living clause and wage protection against inflation are key demands for members of the public service bargaining unit, but the government’s offer equates to a pay cut .
The union statement says the BCGEU is now planning strategic and targeted labor actions and preparing the final essential services with the assistance of the Labor Relations Board.
This year, more than 180 collective agreements covering nearly 400,000 workers are to be renewed in BC.
“Under this offer, the average BCGEU employee would receive salary increases of up to 10.99 percent over the three-year period of the collective agreement,” Sadler’s statement says.