Brad Wall. Photo courtesy of Manfred Joehnck.
Premier Brad Wall is asking government workers to take a 3.5 per cent pay cut. He also wants to lead by example, he’s asking MLA’S to be the first to accept less.
This comes just one day after the premier announced he was giving up his $37,000 a year leaders allowance, ending a practice that has been in place for more than a decade.
Talking to reporters yesterday, the premier hinted that more belt-tightening would lie ahead.
“Any of those who are in the public sector, the valued public service of this province, we are going to ask them to negotiate less in terms of overall compensation,” he said. “And whatever we are asking, we must lead by example.”
Now he is turning his attention to the public sector. He says he expects the 3.5 per cent wage cut to be achieved through negotiations with unions or by employer policy for out-of-scope employees.
He adds staff in his office and other ministerial staff will be taking nine unpaid days off a year, resulting in a 3.5 per cent salary cut.
He says there are many different ways to achieve these kinds of savings across government, and he is not prescribing any specific measures.
MLA’S currently earn about $96,000 dollars a year. A 3.5 per cent pay cut would amount to a reduction of about $3,300 a year.
Government workers include everyone from teachers, to nurses, to Crown corporation employees.
In all there are 39 trade unions involved and more than 62,000 workers.