AUPE president says government must reject huge pay increase for senior officials
EDMONTON – The government of Alberta must reject today’s call by a secretive committee for a huge pay increase for senior officials in light of its wage offer to its own front-line employees, says the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
AUPE President Dan MacLennan today expressed shock and anger at both the size and the timing of the committee’s recommendation that deputy ministers should receive immediate pay increases of almost 24 per cent in addition to other improvements.
“Deputy ministers and other senior government officials should receive the same pay increase as other direct employees of the government, whose work it is that makes the achievements of the government and its managers possible,” MacLennan said.
On May 11, AUPE negotiators signed a tentative agreement with the province that — if ratified by members this month — would see pay increases of 9.9 per cent over three years for the government’s approximately 20,000 direct employees.
Today, the previously unheard-of private-sector committee struck by the government to review the pay and benefits deputy ministers and other senior officials, called for an immediate pay increase of nearly 24 per cent for deputy ministers – on top of “performance bonuses” and a three-per-cent raise the same senior officials received in April.
The committee was never publicly announced by the government and conducted its business with no public hearings or input from front-line staff, the union or taxpayers.
“This recommendation will anger Alberta taxpayers,” MacLennan said. “Its implementation would also be highly unfair to our members.
“Had we known of the recommendation of this committee, which was put in place with no knowledge of the union, I have no doubt that our bargaining committee would not have recommended acceptance of the tentative agreement to our members,” MacLennan said. He noted that ratification ballots and the recommendation were being mailed to members just yesterday.
“We made our recommendation on the assumption the government would behave responsibly,” he said. “I have no doubt that this announcement will affect what our members will think when they get the opportunity to vote on the tentative agreement.
“AUPE will be calling on our members and the public to let their MLAs and the Cabinet know what they think of this report and its recommendation,” MacLennan added, noting that any Albertan can call their MLA by dialing 310-000 from anywhere in Alberta.
MacLennan said that the timing of the announcement raises a major issue of trust for AUPE and its negotiators.
“In the past two rounds of bargaining, we have worked hard to build a relationship of trust with this employer,” he said. “To have the government release this report barely two weeks after our tentative agreement was signed, when the government negotiator had said absolutely there was nothing else there, is a severe setback to that relationship.”
MacLennan assailed the committee’s notion that huge salaries and benefits are the only way to attract and retain good managers to the government. “Their pension plan alone has seen dramatic increases to ensure that these positions are extremely attractive.
“This is an ideological position not supported by the facts,” he said. “It is time for our society to return to the ideal of public service not private greed in its model for compensating senior government managers.”
“The Cabinet must say ‘No’ to this inappropriate and irresponsible recommendation now,” MacLennan concluded.
For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-232-8392 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)