Pay demands not absurd, MDs tell Williams

The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association revealed its bargaining strategy Tuesday, days after Premier Danny Williams had labelled the group's demands as excessive and intolerable.

The NLMA, which represents more than 1,000 salaried and fee-for-service physicians, said it has asked for increases that will bring it to parity with peers in the rest of Atlantic Canada.

"We don't want the top scale," Dr. Brendan Lewis, the association's president, told reporters Tuesday.

"We want to be dead in the middle."

Currently, the association said, its members earn about 88 per cent of the Atlantic rates.

Lewis said the group's overall package is only slightly more than the wage template the government has negotiated with almost all of its bargaining groups, including its civil servants.

'Through the roof'

The government pulled its negotiating team from the bargaining table last week, a day after Williams said the NLMA's requests were "through the roof" and beyond what his government could afford.

"Can't be dealt with. Can't be satisfied. Can't be answered," Williams said.

Lewis said while the medical association had preferred to keep the negotiations confidential, the board felt it needed to speak following the premier's statements last week.

Lewis told reporters that the NLMA tendered a written offer to government, as requested, on March 3, and was awaiting a formal reply.

"The first response that we get — the very first response that we get — is from the premier that it's through the roof, too high, unacceptable," Lewis said.

"We have to lay the record straight…. This is not a quick fix that we're looking for. This is something that we're looking for, for the future — for the next 10 years, even."

Binding arbitration request turned down

The NLMA asked for binding arbitration last Friday, but the provincial government turned the request down. The government said although it had cancelled a bargaining session, it felt the talks were still on.

The NLMA's requested increase works out to about 24 per cent in the overall value of the contract.

The government's four-year wage template is worth about 21 per cent, including compounding.

Newfoundland and Labrador spends about $330 million currently for medical services. The NLMA is asking for a package that would increase spending by about $80 million.

There would be no increases for oncologists and pathologists who were included in a special increase approved in 2008.

The NLMA is asking for an increase of 13 per cent for salaried general practitioners, and 27 per cent for specialists.