Williams raises ante in dispute with nurses
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams issued a warning to the province's nurses Wednesday, telling them they will lose some government offers if they have to be legislated back to work, but the head of the Nurses' Union called it a threat that won't work.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union will launch what it calls an overtime strike on Wednesday, with its more than 5,000 members refusing to work on days off, or accept calls in to work.
A full-fledged strike has not been ruled out.
Speaking to reporters in St. John's, Williams said if the legislature is used to end the strike, the government will knock away monetary concessions it has put on the table, including acceding to a union demand that salary scales be raised.
"We would legislate them back on the template, which is exactly what we've offered to over 30,000 other public servants," said Williams, referring to a four-year wage package, with salary increases of 21.5 per cent, negotiated with civil servants, teachers and others.
"So, there'll be no standby increase, there'll be no shift differential increase, there'll be no educational leave. There will be no additional steps for nurses coming into the system, and there'll be no additional steps for nurses that are already in the system."
NLNU president Debbie Forward said Williams's threat won't work, adding that nurses are happy with the government's financial offer, but they won't agree to demands that include allowing government to pay some nurses higher salaries as a recruitment tool and language that would allow the province to fire nurses who become permanently disabled on the job after two years of receiving earnings loss benefits.
"You know, it's another bullying, threatening tactic by this government — one of many that we've seen over the last couple of months. I'm not surprised," Debbie Forward said.
Forward denies Williams's ultimatum will cause any rifts. She said she is convinced her membership will stand behind her and a strike can still be avoided if the government would simply agree to binding arbitration.
Devastating effect: health minister
Meanwhile, the province's health minister said nurses' plans to stop overtime work could compromise patient safety more than a full-blown strike.
Ross Wiseman said the overtime strike would have a devastating effect on the health-care system.
He said while there are agreements in place for essential workers in the event of a traditional strike, there is nothing in place for an overtime strike to cover critical areas, such as emergency rooms.
"In those areas, the essential employee agreements give us pretty well a full staff complement and guarantees us to have full staff people there all the time," Wiseman said.
"In other words, if we got an emergency department that has 10 nurses, ordinarily the essential employee agreements guarantee us we will always have 10 there, and in fact, if we run into a real emergency, there's an arrangement they'll send in even more."