Province spent $60K so far on law firm for public sector bargaining: NAPE
Officials from the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE) are speaking out in the wake of new information that the provincial government has paid tens of thousands of dollars to a law firm to help with public sector bargaining.
NAPE said in a release Wednesday it has learned through an Access to Information (ATIPPA) request that the province has paid out $61,868 to law firm McInnes Cooper in the last three months.
It was previously known that the province was planning to hire the firm for labour negotiations with unions, such as NAPE, CUPE, the Registered Nurses' Union and the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association.
McInnes Cooper's services come with a $350 per hour rate for collective bargaining support, and $175 per hour rate for any additional services
NAPE said the province has also retained the services of Cathy Dornan, a crisis and communications specialist, to deal with the negotiations.
According to the NAPE release, $20,030 of the money given to McInnes Cooper has gone towards Dornan alone.
That money being paid to McInnes Cooper is on top of the funding that has already been paid to the province's in-house labour relations division and communications staff, NAPE said.
Labour talks haven't started yet
Union President Jerry Earle said the money was also spent before the 16 bargaining groups have had the opportunity to hold a single bargaining meeting with the province.
"We will be filing an ATIPPA request every month on this matter and will be posting constant updates to the public on how their tax dollars are being wasted in this regard," said Earle in the release.
He said that it's troubling that the province is spending all this money, especially when they recently missed two "extremely important bargaining deadlines for at least two public sector unions."
Last week, the province missed a crucial deadline for negotiations with the province's registered nurses union.
That triggered an automatic extension of the previous years' contract.