WAGE FREEZE

Hospital says salaries for clerical workers will be competitive

and that the wages offered by the hospital will continue to be highly competitive once pay increases resume for these employees,” she wrote.

But Thomas told The Examiner earlier this month that the union plans to run a series of media ads to “shame” the hospital out of the wage freezes.

In the latest radio ad, Thomas calls Dr. Peter McLaughlin, the hospital president and CEO, a “grinch.”

“Peter McLaughlin’s $400,000 salary has gone up 21 per cent in three years,” Thomas is heard saying in the ad. “But the people doing the vital clerical work at the hospital have had their wages frozen.”

He adds that it’s “sexist” and “wrong” for the hospital to freeze the wages of these women workers.

“The hospital is very disappointed by the attack-ad tactics being used by OPSEU,” Ough wrote on Wednesday.

She wrote that the hospital has “the greatest respect for the professionalism of the clerical staff,” and also that Dr. McLaughlin is “a respected cardiologist and hospital leader”.

Ough wrote that pay for hospital executives has been frozen since 2010, and that McLaughlin only got increases when promoted from chief medical officer to interim CEO and later to permanent CEO.

Most of the clerical workers at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) who are about to see their wages frozen earn $29,156 a year to work part-time (average 22.5 hours a week), according to the union that represents them.

It’s unfair and even “sexist” to freeze the wages of these women workers, says Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU) provincial president Smokey Thomas in a new radio ad.

Yet they’re among the highestpaid hospital clerical workers in the province, states PRHC spokeswoman Michelene Ough — and their salaries will remain “highly competitive” when their pay increases resume.

A total of 247 clerical workers at PRHC had their jobs re-evaluated recently, and OPSEU says 244 had their jobs downgraded and will have their wages frozen for up to eight years.

Ough has stated 33 of 247 workers will not have a change in wages as a result of the job reevaluations.

She also wrote recently to The Examiner that the jobs hadn’t been re-evaluated in years, and that the process was done “objectively” and with factors in mind such as changes in technology.

The affected clerical workers currently earn far more than minimum wage.

Steve Nield, a regional supervisor for OPSEU, wrote in an email to The Examiner on Wednesday that they have six wage steps, with pay ranging from $23.15 an hour to start in step 1 to $31.66 in step six.

Ough also sent a pay grid showing the same figures.

But Nield added that 60 per cent of the affected workers are employed part-time, earning an average of $24.92 hourly and working 22.5 hours a week.

That means they earn $560 a week, he wrote, or $29,156 annually.

Ough wrote that the workers’ contract extends to 2021 and the pay rates have been negotiated through to 2020.

She also wrote that of the affected workers, 46 will have their wages frozen beyond 2022.

“While the job evaluation was not undertaken for financial reasons, it is important to note that our clerical staff are among the highest-paid in the province,