Thousands of public sector employees whose wages were capped by the Ford government for three years should receive their settlement payments by the fall, Global News has learned, with some workers set to receive bigger paycheques this week.
For the past five months, the province has been renegotiating contracts and repaying tens of thousands of workers after its wage restraint legislation, Bill 124, was struck down by an Ontario court that deemed the law unconstitutional.
The 2019 law, which capped public sector wages at one per cent per year for a three-year period, was challenged by some unions who argued their constitutional right to negotiate a collective agreement was infringed by the Ontario government.
In February, an appeal court agreed with the union’s argument, forcing the Ford government to repeal the law in its entirety instead of taking the issue to Canada’s Supreme Court.
The policy reversal, however, also left many public sector employees questioning how and when their pay would be increased.
Some unions had clauses in their contracts that have already seen historical wages renegotiated and paid back.
The Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO), which represents 16,000 workers in the Ontario Public Service, said its employees will receive a 7.5 per cent salary increase this week and will receive back pay in October.
The Ontario Nurses Association won a 6.75 per cent increase for the Bill 124 years, instead of three per cent under Bill 124, while civil servants were given 9.5 per cent for their three-year period.
Not all unions had automatic reopener clauses and some public workers aren’t represented by a union at all. For those workers, the government is engaged in a more manual repayment process that sources said the province is hoping to wrap up around the fall.
How repayment will work
A government source told Global News the process for unions without reopener clauses should go through several steps. First, unions approach their employer to request a renegotiation, then the employer goes to Ontario’s Treasury Board to seek a mandate to discuss the backpay deal. A backpay agreement could then be negotiated between the union and the employer.
The source said specific percentage point increases haven’t been laid out internally but precedents set by groups like civil servants, nurses and education workers would shape discussions.
Fred Hahn, Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said workers in social service sectors had not found the experience straightforward.
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“It is not proving that simple in community agencies, in social services, in child care and in developmental services,” he told Global News.
“Unless all of our employers are lying to us, simultaneously together because what they’re telling us is that they simply are not able, and will not be funded, to provide the rectification that we are demanding.”
Hahn did say a “big chunk” of the workers represented by CUPE had received or negotiated backpay deals but suggested those still waiting were already among the least well-paid.
A spokesperson for the Ford government said Bill 124 remedies had been worked out with “the majority” of workers impacted by the wage restaurant legislation.
“The timing and responsibility of payments to employees varies and is determined by individual employers,” they said in a statement.
“As is standard practice, all funds disbursed by the government will be reflected in financial documents. Individual employers across the broader public service will also report their expenditures according to their reporting obligations.”
Unifor, another major Canadian union, said “most” of its 18,000-plus members impacted by Bill 124 had “bargained retroactive wages increases above the one per cent cap enforced under the legislation.”
The government source told Global News that for non-unionized public sector workers, it was employers who should begin conversations about repayment to ensure they get the same backpay deals as unionized colleagues.
Part of the decision to repeal Bill 124 in its entirety after twice losing in court was to ensure that unionized and non-unionized workers were eligible for the same deals, Ontario previously said.
Fall target to finish process
Internally, with hundreds of thousands of workers to compensate across the province, the process has ramped up through the spring and into the summer. The government source said the fall was a current target but formal processes like an audit to ensure all workers eligible for backpay deals had received them had not yet been decided.
“It’s interesting that you’re hearing this should be easy, all you have to do is go back and negotiate this and the government will fund it. I’m happy to go back and tell our folks that — that is not the assumption they were operating under,” Hahn said.
“What we’ve been met with from employers is a lot of sympathy, a lot of understanding, a lot of desire to be able to meet this request. But they say, from their perspective, they simply don’t have the money.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford previously admitted his government had already been forced to hand out “billions” in backpay deals after Bill 124 was defeated in court.
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“We’ve already signed agreements with the nurses and a lot of the teachers unions,” he said. “We’ve already spent billions of dollars.”
Hospital workers, teachers and college faculty staff are also on the list of groups that have already been compensated with backpay deals.
A February estimate from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario said the province would likely have to pay out $13.7 billion in wage increases now that Bill 124 is set to be repealed.
That calculation assumes all union and non-union staff who were capped under the law will receive some kind of increase.
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