Public sector offer: Martin Coiteux still wants settlement 'within weeks'

Quebec Treasury Board Chair Martin Coiteux said he's "very disappointed" after public sector unions dismissed outright his government's latest contract offer, calling it "unacceptable."

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Coiteux said the newest offer amounts to an injection of $1.7 billion more than the government's initial offer, or an increase of 5.3 per cent over five years.

Thatincludesslightly more than half a billion dollars whichCoiteuxsaid would go towards "addressing some of theinequities that we have right now in our salary grids."

The new offer falls farshort of the13 per cent raise over five years that publicsector workers are seeking.

"They are still insisting on demands that are, quite frankly, impossible," Coiteux said. "The government is making a very, very serious offer...because we want to come to an agreement within the next weeks.

No more need for pressure tactics,saysCouillard

At the National Assembly, Premier Philippe Couillard echoed his Treasury Board president, calling the latest offer "a very significant gesture."

"No onewill understand why parents and patients should have to go through pressure tactics, now that we have this new offer on the table," Couillard said. "We've put a significant level of improvement on the table... At some point, we have to close and reach a settlement."

'Bad faith bargaining': FIQ

However, public sector unions said they have no intention of taking off pressure, with more rotating strikes planned for next week.

The president of FIQ, Quebec's federation of nurses unions,accused the government of bad-faith bargaining.

"There is nothing to improve our conditions," RgineLaurentsaid, "nothing to retain people working now and certainly nothing to attract new people to the [health care] network."

Imposed contract coming?

Earlier Friday, protesters gatheredoutside ofthe Mount Royal Clubon Sherbrooke Street in Montreal, where theTreasury Board presidentwasscheduled to make a presentation toQuebec's federation of chambers of commerce, theFCCQ.

"Workers will not stop until they get the respect they demand,"DominiqueDaigneaultof the CSN said.

The president of FAE the labour group that represents most French-language teachers in the greater Montreal region dismissed Coiteux'speddling of the offer Friday as "a public relations exercise" with no substantive improvements.

He said Coiteux is setting the stage for drafting special legislation before the adjournment of the National Assembly on Dec. 4 that wouldimpose a collective agreement on the public sector.

Another week of strikes

Both the FAE and the FIQ, along with theCommon Fronta coalition ofunions representing some 400,000 public sector workersare planning rotating strikes throughout next week.

In Montreal and Laval, both French-language and English-language schools will be closed November 16 and 17.

Hospitals and clinics will also be affected, although essential services will be offered.

Details of government offer

Under the new proposal, all public sector workers would still see a basicthree per cent salary hike over five years.

But many would see increases higher than that, once salary-scale inequities were adjusted, the Treasury Board president said.

Right now, two civil servants with the same level of education whose work isclassified at the same rankcould find themselves in entirely different salary gridsbecause of the way past collective agreements were negotiated.

"We're proposing that people, if theirwork is of an equal value, they should have exactly the same salary grid," Coiteux said.

"For 95 per cent of our employees, as a result of this, they will have an increase in their salary," he said, over and above the basic three per cent increase.

Coiteux said the proposed changes to the grid have long been sought by the unions and would improve the long-term prospects for younger public servants starting out in their careers.

"They will have a higher average salary over their whole career andthat will have a positive impact on their retirement, as well," he said.

Among other proposals in the government offer:

• A delay in the plan to raiseretirement age from 60 to 62. This measure would be implemented over the next four years instead of two.
• The withdrawal of a proposal to calculate retirement pensions based on an employee's best eight years of service. The current practice of basing pensions on an employee's best five years of service would remain.