Breaking down profits and compensation

REGINA The fight between Unifor and the government often comes down to numbers.

How much do Crown sector workers make? How about CEOS and MLAS? How profitable are the Crowns?

Seven Crowns are now affected by job action, but the Water Security Agency doesn’t fall under the government’s Crown holding company, Crown Investments Corporation (CIC).

That makes it tough to compare with the others.

Here are some of the most relevant figures, focusing on Saskenergy, Saskpower, Saskwater, Directwest, Securtek and Sasktel, to help guide the conversation:

The average Unifor member

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at the six affected Crowns made $1,283 per week as of December 2018, That compares to $1,010 for the average Saskatchewan worker

Unifor members are now making

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$300 per week in strike pay

The average CEO compensation

■ at the six affected Crowns was $451,537 in 2018-19

Overall executive compensation

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at all CIC Crowns fell 18 per cent over the last fiscal year. But a big chunk of that, $1.3 million, came from winding down STC

Unifor members got hikes that

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varied between 5.2 and 9.5 per cent over the five years prior to the end of their collective agreements. But some have taken zero for more than two years since

Members of the legislative

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assembly have gotten a pay hike of 3.9 per cent over the past five years. That includes a 2.3-per-cent increase this fiscal year

Together, the six affected Crowns

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made $466 million in profits in 2018-19. They paid $200 million of that to Crown Investments Corporation, and hence to the government, in dividends

Those are the numbers. But Unifor and the government interpret them differently.

Unifor’s assistant to the national president, Chris Macdonald, said it’s “preposterous” to examine MLA pay over five years. It’s only so low because MLAS took a 3.5-per-cent cut that they reversed the next year, he pointed out.

He said MLA pay has gone up more steeply than Crown worker pay if a longer timeline is selected, like say 2006 to present. That’s roughly the term of the Saskatchewan Party government.

Macdonald argued that weekly earnings data can be deceptive. He pointed to casual employees who don’t get paycheques every week.

He said call centre workers often make “peanuts,” though several pickets who spoke to Postmedia News said they start at about $21 per hour.

Macdonald emphasized that their jobs can be extremely stressful, as they’re pushed to reach targets.

“People wouldn’t believe the pressures that are on our call centre members,” he said.

The government stresses how much it values their contribution, but points to its bottom line.

“We know the Crowns and employees understand the fiscal environment in Saskatchewan,” came a statement from executive council media relations officer Paula Steckler.

“Our government has been clear that to sustain valued services for the people of Saskatchewan we must manage spending carefully, including compensation expense.”