Workers get pay raise, no new northern allowance formula

There will be no hollering of "solidarity forever," no waving of placards, no angry protests in front of the Nunavut legislature this summer.

The Nunavut Employees Union signed a new collective agreement on June 17, after workers voted 88 per cent in favour of ratifying the deal, reached by mediation after more than 20 months and three rounds of negotiations.

The ratification puts an end to fears of an impending strike, and gives reassurance to government workers who may be wondering whether to relocate south now – during the end of the school year and onset of summer – or stay put.

Union members voted 90 per cent in favour of striking at the end of March.

The four-year agreement will cost the government a total of $92 million, says Levi Barnabas, the human resources minister. But neither he, nor a dozen bureaucrats at the signing ceremony, were able to say how much of an increase this is on current government spending for the current year.

Doug Workman, president of the NEU, says the deal, which gives a 19 per cent pay increase over five years, is "reasonable." Evidently, a large majority of the members who voted agreed with him – or were not unhappy enough to go on strike.

One common complaint with the deal is that it is "back loaded," with the biggest pay increase, of five per cent, only coming into effect in the last six months. Workman says the employer insisted upon this structure, to encourage workers to stay.

Retention of workers is one of the biggest challenges the Government of Nunavut faces today.

Others are unhappy that the deal excludes former employees. This means those who worked for the GN after the collective agreement expired, but who no longer do, won't get back pay.

Some fear this sets a precedent that the union will have difficulty overturning during future negotiations.

Again, Workman said the government would not budge on this issue. But he says he's determined to see former employees included in the next agreement. He's also determined to see the next collective agreement negotiated more quickly than this one.

The last collective agreement expired Oct. 1, 2006.

The union wants Nunavut's Public Service Act to be amended so that collective negotiations may begin earlier than 90 days before the current agreement expires. Members of the legislative assembly are expected to review the act this autumn.

Workman also suggests that negotiations slowed down because the GN went through three different negotiators during that time.

"It just shouldn't have taken that long," Workman said.

Several contentious issues were never resolved, including the development of a new formula for the northern allowance. There are also outstanding disputes over the schedules for corrections workers and some education employees.

But the deal does include provisions that the union and government are to sit down and have structured talks on these disputes, with the option of calling in a mediator.

Workman says this offers a "creative solution" to these disputes. And it's an improvement over what happened in the past, when "we'd offer it in the past and they'd say no, or they wouldn't respond."

Nurses also remain aggrieved. Their union, which is part of the NEU, says the package of bonuses they receive is inadequate.

New nurses will receive an addition $20,000 in bonuses if they stay in Nunavut for three years.

But their union says there's still little incentive for existing nurses to stay in Nunavut when they could be paid more money elsewhere, or could earn more money working in Nunavut for a nursing agency.

Despite any shortcomings of the deal, the one perk that will be most obvious to government workers will be a forthcoming fat pay cheque. In the next 60 days workers will see a 5.25 per cent raise to catch up with the expiration of the last collective agreement, with back pay.

And, Workman says, "it's hard to say no to that."