Health-care wage freeze in works for Alberta

Alberta Health Services is planning a wage freeze for all of the province's health-care workers, the AHS president told a CBC editorial board.

Nurses in Alberta have already accepted a contract with a wage freeze for the next two years.

However, AHS president and CEO Stephen Duckett told a CBC editorial board this week that it'll be proposing a wage freeze for all health workers, including doctors, the next time negotiations arise.

"What we're looking to see in our starting point in negotiations in the immediate future is zero per cent and zero per cent in the first two years of any negotiation," he said.

Duckett told the editorial board that the freeze is necessary to ensure funding continues to flow from the province.

"Part of the condition of the five-year funding agreement is that we balance our budget," he said.

'If Stephen Duckett is expecting zero per cent increases for the staff, then I would hope his contract reflects that for himself as well.' —Liberal MLA Kevin Taft

Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, said talk of a freeze is unacceptable.

"Bargaining is that — it's supposed to be collective bargaining," she said.

"There should not be a predetermined outcome, but zeros? You'd have to give me … something pretty attractive to counterbalance taking an effective pay cut if that's what you wanted our members to take."

Kevin Taft, Liberal MLA for Edmonton-Riverview, said health-care workers have bigger concerns than money.

"What I hear the most often from staff isn't concern about wages, it's concern about the working conditions," he said.

"I'm sure that most staff would be happy to settle for zero if Stephen Duckett could actually get the system running properly again."

Taft said the wage freeze is understandable — as long as Duckett's wage is frozen as well.

"If Stephen Duckett is expecting zero per cent increases for the staff, then I would hope his contract reflects that for himself as well. That would give him and Alberta Health Services a lot more credibility on this issue," he said.