Opposition calls wage freeze ‘phoney’
Opposition leaders attacked the Liberal government’s promised wage freeze for about 350,000 non-unionized workers in Ontario’s public sector as “phoney” yesterday, because some senior managers will actually be taking home more money next year.
The government used last week’s budget to announce it was immediately freezing salaries for non-unionized civil servants and others paid by provincial taxpayers, including executives and managers at hospitals, universities and colleges.
However, it turns out some of those managers will still be eligible for higher performance pay as long as they weren’t already receiving the maximum.
“It’s complicated,” Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters. “Just because it’s complicated for us to explain doesn’t relieve us of the obligation to do what we know is fair in the circumstances.”
The previous Conservative government restructured salaries for some government managers to make a portion of their pay related to performance. Scrapping the bonus would amount to a pay cut, McGuinty said.
The opposition parties weren’t buying his explanation.
“We find out now after three or four days that Dalton McGuinty had claimed to be bringing forward a pay freeze that it’s actually a phoney pay freeze,” said Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.
New Democrats said the Liberals were protecting senior managers while forcing lower-paid middle managers and other non-unionized workers to take a real pay freeze.
McGuinty said the overall pool of money for performance pay will be frozen, which means the managers will be competing among themselves for the bonus money.