Nova Scotia wage package blasted by workers at public hearing

Members of the legislature's law amendments committee are hearing plenty about theMcNeilgovernment's controversial plan to give itself the power to impose a four-year wage contract on the province's 75,000 public employees.

• Nova Scotia wage package bill called 'huge step backwards' by public

The committee sat for fourandahalf hours on Tuesday and is expected to hear testimony for another nine hours on Wednesday. Dozens have asked to speak including union leaders, lawyers, lobbyists, academics as well as members of the public.

Most have spoken out against the legislation, called Bill 148.

Union member Jamie Cleveland said the government's "relentless attacks on unions was getting old."

'We can't print enough money'

Trurodeputysheriff and union activistDustin Rioux called the proposed law"a slap to the face of 75,000hard-working Nova Scotians, their families and their friends."

"These workers are Nova Scotians. They are taxpayers and they want to provide the best public services to Nova Scotians they can," Rioux said.

Kevin Lacey of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, however,offered a different perspective.

"The reality is there's no money," he said. "There's no money under the mattress, there's none in the closet, the cupboards are bare and it's time for unions to understand that taxpayers can't afford any more big agreements and they are tapped out."

Although many have been critical of the wage package contained in the billa two-year wage freeze followed by a total increase of three per cent in the last two yearsLacey thinks even that is too rich.

"We can't print enough money to satisfy some of these voices."

Some earning minimum wage

Civil servant Rachel Barbour took exception to the suggestion all public employees are wellheeled.

"It looks like the government not only doesn't respect the civil service. It looks like they have contempt for the civil service and it looks like they want everyone in the province to know that," Barbour said.

"And they want to somehow foster this myth that the civil servants are fat cats and have cushy jobs and they're lazy and they're not hard workers, and the myth simply isn't true if you look at the information and you look at what's available. It's simply not true."

Barbour said she traded civil service jobs when she moved from British Columbia to Nova Scotia last June. She claims she is being paid $15,000 less a year.

She told the committee some of her colleagues earn just $23,000 a year when they start in the civil service and said it's "barely minimum wage."

Someone earning $10.60 an hour, 40 hours a week would have a gross salary of$22,048.

Members of the law amendments committee started their work at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdayand have set 5 p.m. Wednesdayas the deadline to wrap up.

The CBC'sJean Larochecoveredthe hearings.