Alberta's health superboard asks workers to take wage freeze

Alberta's health superboard asks workers to take wage freeze
Senior managers will forgo raises for two years

Excerpts:

CALGARY- The province's cash-strapped health superboard--Alberta's largest employer -- is asking its 90,000 employees to take a two-year wage freeze, following an announcement Thursday that senior managers will forgo salary hikes during that period.

Alberta Health Services board members also said they'll take pay cuts as large as 25 per cent--potentially wiping out salary hikes handed to them earlier this year by Health Minister Ron Liepert,

who will decide how much to chop from their wages.

While health policy experts said the province is "long overdue" in trimming its salary costs, union leaders are digging in their heels and refusing to relinquish the wage increases they are due.
Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett announced the two-year wage freeze at a public meeting in Red Deer, noting Premier Ed Stelmach is looking for salary freezes across the public sector.

Approximately 8,000 management and non-union staff will have their wages frozen between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2012, saving about $12 million in salary costs next year. The health board is also looking for unionized employees who have agreements that extend beyond March 31, 2010 to accept a voluntary wage freeze.

*Read full article: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Alberta+health+superboard+asks+workers+take+wage+freeze/2160406/story.html