BRANTFORD – A public sector wage freeze is only the first of three necessary steps toward a sustainable public sector payroll, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak said today.

Capping a week of detailing his proposal, Hudak visited Brantford’s Allumination Siding and Windows, which has survived through “pay freezes” and other austerity measures of its own.

“Last year was the toughest in 15 years,” said co-owner Wilf Hogeveen. “Nobody here has had a pay hike for some time. Everyone should share the sacrifice – including folks in the public sector.”

Hudak said beyond a freeze, the next steps to reduce the size and cost of government are to fix Ontario’s broken public sector salary arbitration system and make unions compete for government contracts.

“Reining in public sector salaries with a $16 billion deficit is the right thing to do,” Hudak said. “But at the root of the problem are the arbitrators who enable these unsustainable pay increases in the first place. So too is a public sector union monopoly on government labour.”

On arbitration, Hudak cited several examples of wage settlements that show the system is unreasonably slow and out of touch with fiscal realities and community needs. Among them:

Stratford firefighters: In December 2011, an arbitrator awarded city firefighters and dispatchers retroactive pay hikes of three per cent in each of 2007, 2008 and 2009, and pay increases of 3.6 per cent for 2010 and 3.8 for 2011 and 2012. Total estimated cost: $1.5 million – which has delayed approval of the City’s 2012 budget and raised the threat of a tax increase to finance it all.

University professors and librarians: In October 2010, arbitrator Martin Teplitsky rejected the Liberals’ plea for wage freeze, saying he refused to be “a minion of the government.” He awarded U of T employees a 4.5 per cent salary increase over two years, explicitly saying he did not take the university’s negative financial situation into account.

Hydro workers: In March 2010, arbitrator Kevin Burkett awarded 3,400 unionized OPG employees increases of six per cent over two years. Burkett said that without legislation backing it, there was “no binding force or effect” to the government’s plea for a wage freeze.

Key elements of Hudak’s public sector salary arbitration reform plan:

• Imposing clear and tight timeframes on arbitrators so provincial and local governments can budget accordingly
• Requiring arbitrators to respect ability-to-pay (that is, without the need for tax increases) and take into account local economic circumstances, and
• Mandating arbitrators to explain the reasons for their decisions

“Ontario can no longer afford having arbitrators thumb their noses at the taxpayers they represent and the communities they serve,” Hudak said. “My three-stage public sector labour reform plan will fix this broken system once and for all.”