Conciliation request unnecessary: nurses

The union leader representing Newfoundland and Labrador's nurses is surprised but not worried that the provincial government and the regional health boards have appealed for a conciliator to clew up contract talks.

Nurses have been working without a contract since last June.

Nurses Union president Debbie Forward said she did not feel negotiations had been lagging, and described bargaining as still being at an early stage.

"We didn't have any pressure from government to meet prior to Christmas," said Forward, adding that opening proposals were exchanged in February, followed by three days of talks in April.

"We thought the process was moving along, so we were quite disappointed that government has taken this approach this early in negotiations," Forward said.

"Effectively, [government] is saying to us that they don't think they can conclude a collective agreement with nurses."

Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan said government wants to work out a new contract with the province's nurses as quickly as possible.

A speedy resolution is important, Sullivan said, because government wants to make it easier to fix public service pension plans.

Government will need to borrow money to restructure ailing plans, and Sullivan wants to move while interest rates are low.

"We feel it's an opportune time. The window of opportunity is open, [and] we'd like to do it as cheap as possible," Sullivan said.

"That frees up flexibility in our borrowing and our interest payments that we have for programs and services [instead of] using it to pay interest on our mortgage."

Forward said she believes the nurses' position will not be affected by the move.

Both sides are expected to meet next week with a conciliator.

Sullivan tabled a balanced budget in March, helped strongly by soaring offshore oil revenues and business taxes.

However, the provincial government has held to an austere approach while bargaining with other groups. The government hammered out packages with physicians and teachers this year that include wage freezes for the opening years of the respective contracts, with modest increases to follow.