AHS calls for pay cuts in opening contract offer
Alberta Health Services is proposing wage cuts to a dozen professions, including a more than 10-per-cent rollback for social workers and pharmacy technicians, as part of its opening bid in contract negotiations with the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA).
The health authority is suggesting wage cuts for about 57 per cent of the union's members covering jobs that also include occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, speech language pathologists and pharmacists. The chairwoman of the union's bargaining committee, Leanne Alfaro, said members are disappointed by the offer.
“Our members' mandate has not changed. That was no rollbacks, no concessions, job security, and also to increase workplace health and safety and wellness for our members,” she told Postmedia Monday.
AHS'S collective agreement with HSAA expired at the end of March 2020 and the two sides began collective bargaining in October 2021 after agreeing to hit pause as a result of the pandemic.
While AHS is proposing rollbacks targeting specific professions, HSAA'S opening offer calls for increases for all members.
Along with cost of living increases, the union is asking for a 1.5-percent wage increase for members in 2020 followed by a one-per-cent increase for the three years after that, Alfaro said. In the legislature Monday, Health Minister Jason Copping said HSAA'S proposal amounts to a 15-per-cent increase over four years. “These are opening positions. I am hopeful that the parties will be able to negotiate through this and reach a fair agreement,” he said. Alfaro said AHS is arguing that Alberta wages need to be brought in line with pay in Ontario.
The Official Opposition took a swing at the government Monday for proposing wage cuts for healthcare workers at a time when Finance Minister Travis Toews has approved potential wage increases of between three and 39 per cent for employees of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCO).
“This is a brutal insult to all Albertans who have put themselves in harm's way throughout this pandemic and who've been working to protect their fellow Albertans for their entire career. Respiratory therapists, paramedics, lab technicians, so many others, they are heroes and their work isn't done,” NDP health critic David Shepherd said Monday.