The Alberta government wants nearly 24,000 government employees to accept a one per cent wage rollback in the first year of a four-year collective agreement, followed by three years of wage freezes.
The proposal from the government was presented on Thursday on the first day of collective bargaining for 23,578 public service members represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
Those public service members include general government employees, correctional officers, fish and wildlife officers and social workers.
AUPE shared the proposal on their website Thursday evening, an hour after Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews sent a news release that praised the proposal by the Public Service Commission.
AUPE President Guy Smith said the government was punishing workers after an independent arbitrator awarded a one per cent wage increase to AUPE members last week.
“This is an act of revenge, not a rational argument,” Smith said in the AUPE update.
According to AUPE, the government wants to move a range of jobs into a lower-paying classification, reduce the flexible spending account, and cut some overtime pay.
AUPE said the government proposal eliminates job security provisions and makes it easier for the government to move work done by the public sector to private contractors.
The government says there is no additional money to pay for wage increases.
Toews called the offer to AUPE “a common-sense proposal that prioritizes service delivery over salary increases.”
The AUPE proposal asks for a two-year agreement with a 2.5 per cent pay increase in each year to match cost-of-living increases.
The proposal also asks for job security provisions to continue and a prohibition on contracting out work done by union members.