Duckett comments out of line, say lab techs, paramedics

Two-year wage freeze suggestion 'a shot across the bow'
By Keith Gerein, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - As Alberta Health Services prepares to unveil its new budget today, the organization's president has drawn the ire of at least one union by suggesting he will seek wage freezes for health-care workers across the province.

The Health Sciences Association of Alberta called Stephen Duckett's comments a "shot across the bow" that will create a fractious atmosphere ahead of contract negotiations scheduled for early 2011.

"We want to do our bargaining at the table, and it's unfortunate we are now starting six months in advance," association president Elisabeth Ballermann said Monday.

"I don't think it's going to help people feel particularly valued at a time when they are being met with more demands than we have service to provide."

The association represents 20,000 health-care professionals including paramedics, lab technologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, psychologists and dietitians. Most of the association's members work for Alberta Health Services, and their latest contract ends March 31, 2011.

Duckett told a CBC editorial board that his organization is in better shape due to a more lucrative funding arrangement with the province, but the deal is contingent on maintaining a balanced budget.

To ensure that goal is achieved, he suggested staff costs have to be kept in check.

"What we're looking to see in our starting point in negotiations in the immediate future is zero per cent and zero per cent in the first two years of any negotiation," he told CBC.

Whatever contracts are finally signed, they will have little impact on the 2010-11 budget Alberta Health Services plans to announce today but will have big implications for future budgets.

A recent mediated agreement between Alberta Health and the United Nurses of Alberta will freeze nurses' wages for a year, then boost pay by two per cent in the second year and four per cent in the third.

Ballermann said her union is not yet prepared to accept a similar deal. A wage freeze is essentially a pay cut because paycheques have to stretch further to cover cost of living increases, she said.

She said her union may be more amenable to Duckett's position if the superboard promises action in other areas, such as boosting staff levels.

"If you are going to ask us to take zero, we would have to have some very attractive alternatives to make us even at look at that," she said.

"We're aware of the economic conditions, but quite frankly ... we've got people going through upheaval after upheaval for well over a decade, and that has been showing in morale."

The Alberta Medical Association, which represents 7,000 doctors, declined to respond to Duckett's comments.

The group's eight-year deal with the province also ends on March 31. Over the last three years of the agreement, doctors' fees have been allowed to increase 14.5 per cent.