Union decries wage hike for premier, MLAs, calls it ‘slap in the face’ to workers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/07/2023 (831 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The union representing 17,000 Manitoba civil servants currently without a contract says workers should receive the same cost-of-living pay increases Premier Heather Stefanson, her cabinet and other MLAs receive.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union — currently in collective bargaining — says public service workers have been offered annual pay increases of 1.75 per cent in 2023, 1.5 per cent in 2024, and 1.75 per cent in 2025.

The premier and elected officials are on track to receive more than double that amount, with raises of 3.3 per cent this year, and forecast increases of 3.6 per cent in 2024 and 2025.

On April 1, the basic annual salary for all Manitoba MLAs was $102,998 — with the premier receiving an additional $86,312, and cabinet ministers and the leader of the official Opposition receiving an extra $56,390.

A year earlier, an MLA’s base pay was $99,708, with an $83,555 top-up for the premier and an added $54,589 for cabinet ministers and Opposition leader.

MLA salaries are regulated under the Legislative Assembly Act and determined by the Manitoba Commissioner for MLA Pay, Allowances and Retirement Benefits, based on Manitoba’s Consumer Price Index, the rate of inflation.

“That formula is fair for them, it should be fair for us,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said at a noon-hour information picket Thursday outside the Radisson constituency office of Government Services Minister James Teitsma.

“Currently, the offer that we’ve been given is not in the realm of fairness,” Ross said while handing out pamphlets at a strip mall parking lot near Teitsma’s office that had a “closed” sign on the door.

The minister was not available for an interview Thursday.

In an emailed statement, his spokesman noted the pay increase for cabinet ministers is the same as for the leader of the official Opposition, and the Manitoba government is not the employer of the MGEU members.

Teitsma has said previously in the legislative assembly the government is not meddling in the collective bargaining process and is leaving negotiations to employers.

The MGEU alleges the Stefanson government has imposed a restrictive wage mandate on public-sector bargaining tables across Manitoba.

This year, provincial employer offers have averaged less than two per cent a year while inflation surged and wages for other workers — private and public — have increased by more.

In March, Statistics Canada reported average hourly wages rose 5.4 per cent in 2022-23. In June, the Public Service Alliance of Canada announced its members ratified a contract that includes a 12.6 per cent pay increase over four years.

The 17,000 MGEU employees working without a contract include 11,000 government employees, 1,780 at Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp., 1,716 at Manitoba Public Insurance, and 2,000 at Manitoba colleges.

“The wages of employees of Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries are negotiated with MLL,” Teitsma’s spokesman said.

When asked about the MLA pay raises at an unrelated news conference Thursday morning, the premier said the increases MLAs receive are “out of our hands.”

“There is an independent process that takes place with the commissioner that makes those decisions,” Stefanson said.

MGEU said the latest contract offer is a “self-serving double standard” and “slap in the face to provincial public service workers.”

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca