Unifor pay demands would cost $12M
REGINA Unifor’s demands for better compensation for Crown-sector workers would put a roughly $12-million dent in a provincial budget with a $26-million surplus, threatening the government’s celebrated return to balance.
But the government seems even more worried about the precedent it would set across the rest of the public sector.
The two sides remain far apart on wages as a massive Crown-sector strike enters its seventh day with no end in sight. Crown employers are offering a five-per-cent hike spread over five years, but with two years of zeros up front. Unifor wants twoper -cent raises every year for three years, plus lump sum payments for expired years of their contracts.
Finance Minister Donna Harpauer has pointed to the “fiscal environment” in her statements about bargaining. She’s watching the $34-million surplus she announced in March slip away, narrowing to just $26 million in the latest fiscal update. A new update is expected in weeks, and a disappointing harvest with higher crop insurance payments could tighten it even more.
Unifor has stressed that taxpayers don’t pay Crown employees. Crowns do, out of their own-source revenues. But the budgetary reality is more complicated. Crown profits figure into the government’s bottom line whether or not they pay a cent to the province in dividends.
“Any additional costs incurred by the Crowns, such as an increase in compensation costs, decreases Crown profits which in turn decreases the overall government surplus or increases the deficit, as the case may be,” said a statement from executive council media relations officer Matthew Glover.
And a large share of Unifor’s request will hit this fiscal year.
A two-per-cent salary hike for the seven affected Crowns would cost roughly $6 million per year, according to the government. Unifor actually put the number a bit higher — about $7.8 million — but said it relies on more indirect estimates.
The union’s lump sum request would add even more in 2019-20. The government said the current budget will have to cover retroactive payments from previous years.
“If it is paid for this year, it has to be recorded in this year,” wrote Glover.
Sasktel’s contract expired this March. But the 522 Unifor members at Saskpower and 800 at Saskenergy have lived with an expired collective agreement for almost three years. Smaller bargaining units at Saskwater and the Water Security Agency have been without a contract for more than a year.
Unifor estimates the value of the lump sum it’s asking for at about $6 million.
That would mean a total hit of approximately $12 million to this year’s budget.
Chris Macdonald, assistant to the national president of Unifor, took issue with the significance of that number.
He argued that the Crowns, which earned about $466 million in net income last fiscal year, can afford to pay fair wages.
“I think it’s important to point out that these workers are not paid for by tax dollars. These workers are paid for by Crowns that are wildly profitable,” he said.
Macdonald said any worries about what Unifor demands would do to the budget are “laughable.” He noted that the Crowns could simply increase the price of their services to cover the hike, keeping net income the same.
But the government’s fears seem to go beyond the striking Crowns. There’s a precedent to be set. Another statement from executive council said it’s “important to remember” that even a one-percent increase across the entire public sector — including Crowns and civil servants in government ministries — would cost roughly $80 million per year.
“Unifor members are not being asked to do more or less than all others engaged in bargaining or those who have reached agreements during this round of bargaining,” said the statement.
It noted that eight contracts have already been settled, including with more than 15,000 health employees who accepted a deal similar to what the government is offering Unifor. It also pointed to the recent agreement with Saskgaming. Its members accepted an agreement with two years of flat wages this week.
Macdonald countered that other bargaining units, like IBEW at Saskpower and health workers with SEIU-WEST, have turned those offers down.
He said if the government wants to bargain with the whole public sector at one table, then it should go ahead and do it.