Salary revamp will save $4M, AHS says
CALGARY — Alberta Health Services’s salary structure overhaul released Friday will axe executive bonuses and assign new titles to some senior executives in hopes of saving up to $4 million next year.
The authority’s official administrator, Dr. John Cowell, said most of the salaries will fall in the mid-range of the new pay grid, though some executives — including the AHS chief executive — could potentially earn more depending where they qualify within the new salary structure.
The overhauled compensation plan comes after an order from Health Minister Fred Horne to review compensation paid to top executives at the $13.4 billion provincial health organization, following a major restructuring of AHS’ top ranks.
But critics questioned why the number of management positions remained the same, and panned the changes as a PR move.
“No one’s losing their jobs, we’re not making the Alberta Health Services bureaucracy any smaller. This is nowhere near the restructuring Alberta Health Services needs,” said Wildrose MLA Kerry Towle.
“It’s a change in business cards. They’ve done nothing to help support the front-line services.”
The new salary model follows a shakeup at the health authority in September, when AHS pared down its V Pranks to 10 from 80, with five senior executives leaving the organization altogether.
The authority now has nine VPs and two senior medical director leaders at the VP level. One of the next steps will be figuring out a new way to pay senior leaders, about 80 employees.
According to AHS, compensation is now based solely on the average rate of the public sector. The new structure hasn’t been adjusted to offset the elimination of payat-risk, considered by some critics as a type of year-end bonus, said Cowell.
Senior leaders won’t make less in their base salary following the changes, but AHS is moving 15 executive jobs into the management pool.
According to Cowell, the $4 million in potential savings will come in the 2014-15 fiscal year from the elimination of pay-at-risk compensation combined with the “accumulated savings” of salary grid changes for AHS leaders.