14/02/2020
UNA LABOUR RELATIONS DIRECTOR TO MLA JASON STEPHAN: ARE YOU AWARE YOU’RE PAID 22% HIGHER THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE FOR MLAS?
Is Red Deer South United Conservative Party MLA Jason Stephan aware that as an Alberta MLA he is currently paid 22 per cent higher that the national average for members of legislative assemblies?
That question was posed by United Nurses of Alberta Labour Relations Director David Harrigan after Stephan published a statement critical of UNA’s bargaining position on a Red Deer news website soon after a visit to his constituency office by a group of Registered Nurses unhappy with the UCP’s call for their wages to be rolled back.
Harrigan’s response, first published on social media, continued:
“Why are you not ‘taking steps to confront outlier benefits or restrain salaries which exceed provincial counterparts’ when it comes to your salary? Wasn't your government elected to restore fiscal accountability and sustainability in the face of structural billion-dollar government deficits?
“Are you aware that even with the economic downturn of the past few years, the average weekly earnings in Alberta is 15 per cent higher than the National Average? According to the Ernst & Young report, nurses are paid 7 per cent higher than the national average. Sounds like Albertans are getting a good deal already.
“The reality is that people in management occupations, business, finance and administration, education, law, sales and service, trades, natural resources and manufacturing are all paid higher in Alberta. This used to be known as the Alberta Advantage.
“As for your supposed concern about part-time nurses working on their days of rest, I have a solution for you. Don’t call them in. Staff appropriately so you don’t need to have nurses working additional shifts.
“Your Government ordered Alberta Health Services to provide UNA a letter indicating they planned to lay off 500 ‘FTEs’ — about 700 positions. And you still have the temerity to claim you are not interested in reducing services?
“Political rhetoric should be honest; without disingenuous distortions of facts, or attacks on persons instead of policies where genuine differences of opinion may exist. I would invite all MLAs, including those in Central Alberta to ensure their party avoids taking unreasonable positions which disrespect taxpayers (yes, public sector employees are also taxpayers) or undermine a sustainable public health care system. That is in the public interest.”
