Cities unsure if labour law changes will keep salaries down
Liberal omnibus bill will change arbitration rules for police, fire, and other workers
New Brunswick's cities say it's too early to tell if Liberal changes to the province's labour laws will help them get soaring police and firefighter salaries under control.
Changes to the binding arbitration process, part of the Liberal government's omnibus program review bill introduced this week, have drawn the ire of labour unions.
But the province's largest municipalities have been lobbying for such an overhaul for years.
"The next arbitration will tell us if the province was on the right track in trying to solve this issue," says Denis Roussel, the executive director of the Cities of New Brunswick Association.
"We're certainly happy that the province took a step forward to try to solve this problem … We're still not sure if it's going to solve the problem that we have, which is the year-over-year, uncontrollable increase to salaries to fire and police."
I'll certainly listen to whoever says they haven't been consulted.—Francine Landry, minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour
Last month, city officials in Moncton announced a four-year, 11.9 per cent pay increase for city firefighters.
Combined with the previous collective agreement, Moncton said it amounted to a wage increase of 50 per cent for firefighters between 2008 and 2019.
Mayor George LeBlanc said when he announced the agreement the city "would not have voluntarily agreed to" the big pay hike, but negotiated it to avoid arbitration "because the outcome would likely have been the same or worse."
Because police and firefighter unions don't have the right to strike, those wage disputes end up in arbitration more often, Roussel said.
Moncton and other members of the cities association asked the province to change the legislation to force arbitrators to take into account a city's economic circumstances.
The 77-page omnibus bill amends 15 provincial statutes, including the Industrial Relations Act.
The changes will apply to employers other than cities, such as universities. In 2014, an arbitration board awarded the faculty union at the University of New Brunswick a 12.5 per cent pay increase over three years.
Among the changes in the Liberal bill is a so-called "final offer" provision. If a dispute goes to arbitration, each side will submit a final offer and the arbitrator would pick one or the other, without the freedom to opt for a number somewhere between the two.
The idea is an offer from either side that is too extreme could cause the arbitrator to pick the other side's offer.
"It means both parties will try to offer a final offer [that is] the most realistic possible," Francine Landry, minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, told reporters.
Whether it works won't be apparent until a few disputes go to arbitration, Roussel said.
"It's very difficult to assess now what it's going to do, because it's rarely used across the country," he said. "It's not a process that is widely used in any sector."
Wednesday, for the second day in a row, the minister came under attack in the legislature over the changes, with Opposition politicians accusing her of not consulting the affected unions.
Municipalities asked for changes
Landry told reporters there were consultations last June with municipalities.
"There were challenges and cost pressures on municipalities, and they're certainly the ones who have asked us to look at, and do, something."
She said her officials also met with unions, police representatives, and firefighters later in 2015. But she said some organizations invited to meetings did not show up.
"If there are people who didn't take part in those meetings … I will meet them," she said. "We're ready to meet them. I'll certainly listen to whoever says they haven't been consulted."
But Landry said she didn't foresee any changes to those provisions of the omnibus bill, which MLAs began debating Wednesday afternoon.
In last month's announcement of its contract deal with firefighters, Moncton officials complained that the pressure for big wage hikes for firefighters created by the arbitration process was "undesirable and is inconsistent with fair settlements" reached with other unions.
But Opposition MLAs say the Liberal changes are unfair because police and firefighters gave up their right to strike in return for a strong arbitration process. Weakening it amounts to breaking that agreement, they say.
"It essentially blows up the long-standing agreement that was made in return for firefighters and first responders to give up the right to strike, to provide a fair system of dealing with those negotiations," Green leader David Coon said. "That's going to be gone."
Coon said the final-offer provision "stacks the deck" in favour of employers who want to avoid giving employees wage increases.
PC MLA Trevor Holder said the Liberals should have consulted more widely with firefighters, police unions, and others affected by the change.
But Holder wouldn't say whether he supports or opposes the final-offer provision and other elements of the changes.
"We've got to sit down and hear from all sides on this," he said.