Province offers BCGEU almost 11 per cent pay raise with strike on horizon

As unionized government workers threaten targeted strike action, the public service is providing details on its latest offer to those employees.

Bobbi Sadler, deputy minister for the BC Public Service Agency, says in a statement to union members exactly what the BC Public Service Agency was offering.

“The average (BC General Employees’ Union) BCGEU employee would receive wage increases of up to 10.99% over the three-year term of the collective agreement,” says Sadler.

In the statement, Sadler adds the government agency has been working to achieve a fair and reasonable settlement in our bargaining with the BCGEU.

Related links:

Talks between the BCGEU and the Public Service Agency have stalled, according to the union.

Key issues for the bargaining unit, which represents 33,000 unionized provincial civil servants, are cost of living adjustments and wage protection from inflation.

“Our members have told us since the beginning of this round of bargaining that they would not ratify a deal which did not address the increasing cost of living,” Stephanie Smith, BCGEU president and chair of the Public Service Bargaining Committee explains.

“We were surprised that the employer was unwilling to come back to the table with a counteroffer,” says Smith. “Our union’s revised wage proposal is within the monetary framework that government has laid out, and yet the employer was not willing to budge.”

The BCGEU says it will plan “strategic, target job action” and finalize essential services, in the meantime.

The union says that a total of almost 400,000 public sector workers have agreements that will, or already have, expire this year.

With files from John Ackermann

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today