Next Up - Public Sector Wage Freeze

The headline states “Dwight Duncan targets public service brass with pay freeze, salary caps”. 

To be honest and transparent l am probably the most unqualified person to write about the latest attempt of Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals to control spending in Ontario. To this day l believe the NDP were right when they implemented “Rae Days” in the early 1990’s. Sure l acknowledge the NDP panic and there were many discrepancies in their attempt to deal with an economic meltdown. I believed and supported their goal that jobs and services could be maintained if all public servants made do with a little less. Of course the above opinion puts me at odds with the following groups…let’s see… unions, Liberals, Conservatives, the electorate, did l miss anyone? 

I believe the political landscape is very much in favour with freezing public sector salaries. I have some concerns about the approach on how the Liberals intend on proceeding with the next round of cuts. I will outline them in today’s column. It should be noted I am a public servant for the next few months. I personally do not have a problem with a wage freeze. 

Last year a certain group of public servant managers received performance bonus. Actually 98% of them did. When such a high percentage of employees receive a bonus it isn’t really a special recognition of work performed. It is in fact financial recognition that you showed up for work. I would hope this practice is stopped. 

The new salary cap will be $418,000 dollars. This figure only applies to new hires. Anyone presently earning more will be frozen at their present rate. I agree with Warren “Smokey” Thomas president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union perspective on the proposed freeze. According to Mr. Thomas if you freeze someone’s salary who is making $750,000 they still are making $750,000. Why not set the cap at $418,000. If that isn’t enough then get someone else to do the job. 

There will be exceptions to the new wage rate. Crown Corporations can pay more if they think it is necessary by appealing to the finance minister. I disagree with this “loophole”. It has been decisions by past politicians that have allowed heads of public corporations to be compensated at high six figure rates. 

To achieve significant savings Dwight Duncan intends to target all public servants. During “Rae Days” employees who earned less than $30,000 were exempt. Of course this time all employees will be affected. The savings realized by targeting mid-level public service managers is $12 million. Relative to a $14 billion dollar deficit this is small potatoes. The Liberals intend to freeze all public sector employees for two years. The intention in addressing salaries for public sector executives is symbolic. 

In the past wage freezes have resulted in catch up contracts. In other words they were only a temporary solution. This fact was pointed out in the Drummond Report. I am curious if the Liberal Party of Dalton McGuinty has abandoned or intends to ignore the Drummond Report for the remainder of their term. It wasn’t long ago the Liberals rejected the Conservative Party call for a wage freeze. The Liberals also ignored the NDP call for review of the compensation for executives who ran hospitals and power utilities in Ontario. 

I wonder what else besides a wage freeze will be implemented. In the recent legislature introduced in the education sector there was a new sick leave policy. I do not have the space or full knowledge of these changes to adequately address this development here. My prediction is it will take years to sort out these changes. My point is it is not the wage freeze in itself that can cause the most problems. 

As I see it, the wage freeze for all public sector employees will shortly be a reality. I will be retired shortly. If the Ontario Government has any problems filling any of that $400,000 dollar positions I will be available for half that figure. Don’t laugh; look at eHealth, Orange Helicopter Service, some of the hospital etc. I can do better (certainly no worst) for less.    

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