OPG workers dodge cap on wage hikes
Independent arbitrator awarded raises the day before Bill 124 took effect
Thousands of Ontario Power Generation employees will get raises that are twice the limit set out in a new law passed by the Progressive Conservative government to cap public-sector wages, the Star has learned.
That’s thanks to a loophole in Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy’s Bill 124, which outlaws settlements of more than one per cent annually for most public servants for three years.
While the legislation is retroactive to June 5, an independent arbitrator awarded heftier raises to the 3,100 Society of United Professions (SUP) members in a decision released Nov. 7.
Coincidentally, that was the same day the bill passed at Queen’s Park — and the day before it came into effect.
As a result, the unionized engineers, scientists and other white-collar workers will receive two per cent wage increases next year and an additional two per cent in January 2021 with another 0.8 per cent the following November.
“OPG respects the collective bargaining process and will respect the arbitration decision,” said Neal Kelly, a spokesperson for the Crown-owned electricity utility, whose employees are covered under Bill 124.
“Throughout this process, OPG has been committed to achieving a fair and reasonable agreement that recognizes the operational needs of the company,” Kelly said.
“The interest arbitration award was made by the independent arbitrator,” he said, referring to Kevin Burkett, a former alternate chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board and one of Canada’s most prominent arbitrators.
It affects about 36 per cent of OPG’s workforce. Most of the employees appear on the annual Sunshine List of public servants who earn more than $100,000 a year.
Bethlenfalvy’s office said the settlement just made it under the wire thanks to a provision in the legislation.
“For arbitration awards issued after June 5, but before the act came into force (on Nov. 8), the moderation period will apply to the next collective agreement after the collective agreement that gives effect to that award,” the treasury board president’s office said. That means the OPG employees will not be subjected to the law dictating a maximum of one per cent annual raises until Jan. 1, 2022.
SUP president Scott Travers expressed criticism of Premier Doug Ford’s administration for meddling in labour negotiations.
“Free and fair collective bargaining, without the interference of the Ford government, would have produced a better result for our members, Ontario Power Generation, and ratepayers,” Travers said.
“This arbitration award, handed down just before Bill 124 came into effect, is an illustration of how wage growth can be used as a tradeoff to drive greater savings in the broader public sector,” he said.
“In this instance, the arbitrator balanced wage growth with changes to the collective agreement that will facilitate a lower cost transition as Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is decommissioned.”
News of the arbitrator’s award comes as education unions are gearing up for job action, in part because of the Progressive Conservative government’s refusal to budge on the one per cent wage cap.
Unions have warned Bill124 — which affects hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, professors, bureaucrats, and numerous other public service employees, including Ontario Provincial Police officers — is unconstitutional.
They are preparing a Charter challenge because they believe it impedes the collective bargaining process and impinges on union members’ constitutional rights to freedom of association.
History suggests the government may be on shaky legal ground. Former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty’s Bill115, which imposed settlements on teachers in 2012, was found to be unconstitutional in 2016.
So far, Bill 115 has cost the province more than $100 million in court settlements with education unions.
Bethlenfalvy has insisted Bill 124, which exempts municipal employees such as local police officers, is “fair and time-limited approach” to help pay down the Progressive Conservatives’ $9-billion deficit.
High school teachers, who were at the bargaining table Friday, are seeking a wage increase at the rate of inflation, the equivalent of about two per cent this year, or double the maximum in the new law.
Harvey Bischof, president of the 60,000-member Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said he was “glad that (OPG) workers got a compensation increase that was deemed to be appropriate by an independent third party.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. The government should, by the same token, stop interfering inappropriately in our bargaining if they want to reach an agreement that will lead to long-term stability in the sector,” he said.