More than half of all unionized public sector workers have new contracts under the 2012 Cooperative Gains Mandate in time for the holiday season, and more than one-quarter of collective agreements up for negotiation have tentative or ratified settlements in place, Finance Minister Michael de Jong announced today.

About 300,000 unionized workers are employed in the public service, at Crown corporations and agencies, and in the kindergarten-to-Grade 12, post-secondary, research universities, health and community social services sectors. The 51 collective agreements with tentative or ratified settlements cover approximately 152,700 employees.

Agreements have been reached with the B.C. Public Service on the Master Agreement, with B.C. nurses and the Facilities Bargaining Association, as well as with provincial Crown agencies, including BC Hydro and ICBC. Numerous settlements have been reached with support staff at research universities, and also at colleges, institutes and teaching universities.

All of the agreements provide for modest wage increases, which are being funded from savings found within existing budgets, as required under the 2012 Cooperative Gains Mandate.

The B.C. government has been clear that there is no new money to fund wage increases and there is no desire to download these costs onto families or future generations. The Cooperative Gains Mandate provides public sector employers with the ability to negotiate modest wage increases funded from savings within existing budgets, while not adding costs to taxpayers and ratepayers, and not sacrificing services.

These agreements under the 2012 mandate are unique between sectors and between employers in some sectors, providing modest wage increases which are different at each table, depending on an employer's ability to fund increases from savings within existing budgets.

Quotes:

Minister of Finance Michael de Jong -

"These recent agreements represent a significant milestone as more than half of unionized employees in the public sector are now covered under negotiated settlements. I applaud the dedication of the negotiators who have worked hard to reach new settlements before the holiday break. The agreements continue to show that the Cooperative Gains Mandate can lead to negotiated settlements across the B.C. public sector."

"Despite the challenging fiscal climate putting pressure on government's outlook, this latest milestone shows we can achieve settlements while controlling spending, without taking more money from taxpayers or reducing services. I encourage the parties involved to continue negotiating and pursuing agreements in the new year."

Learn More:

Updated bargaining information is available at:http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/psec/bargaining/index.htm

Media Contact:

Jamie Edwardson
Communications Director
Ministry of Finance