Ontario public servants awarded 6.5% pay hike in wake of Bill 124 ruling
Ontario public servants awarded 6.5% pay hike in wake of Bill 124 ruling
Ruling on appeal of decision that found Bill 124 unconstitutional expected soon
Good. This is the sort of thing tax money is supposed to be for: ensuring that workers who render services to the public on behalf of the government collect a living wage for their efforts. (Things it isn't supposed to be for include paying lawyers to appeal perfectly reasonable court rulings, providing tax refunds to people who don't really need them, and paying down a deficit that no one really cares much about.)
I just wish the government would do more to help ensure corporations provide livable wages or at the very least help wages keep up with inflation.
One of the most effective ways a government can do that is by paying the public sector better. If private companies were always in fear of losing people to high paying public sector jobs, they would pay better.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ontario public servants have won additional pay increases of 6.5 per cent — the latest in a series of retroactive pay decisions for workers affected by a wage restraint law that was found unconstitutional.
An arbitrator has awarded those members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union the extra pay in response to a "reopener" clause they had in the contract they signed in 2022, which at the time was subject to a law known as Bill 124.
An Ontario court has declared it unconstitutional, ruling that it infringes on the workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, but the government has appealed.
In the meantime, arbitrators have awarded additional retroactive pay to several groups of workers that had "reopener" clauses in their contracts, including teachers, nurses, other hospital workers, ORNGE air ambulance paramedics, and college faculty.
Combined with the one per cent per year in the public servants' 2022 contract, the additional pay means they will receive salary increases of three per cent in the first and third years of the deal, and 3.5 per cent in the second year.
"This government may think that their majority means they hold all the power, but this win is proof that when we build worker power and solidarity, workers have the power to fight for what they deserve," OPSEU president JP Hornick wrote in a statement.
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