NS Healthcare Workers To Receive 5.5 Per Cent Pay Bump With New Deal
HALIFAX— Healthcare workers across Nova Scotia are due for a significant pay increase over the next two years. The unionized workers voted 82 per cent in favour of a new collective deal that will give them a 5.5 per cent wage bump between now and 2023.
The first 1.5 per cent raise is retroactive to November 1, 2020. The rest of the wage increases will be phased in between November 1, 2021 and October 31, 2023— the date which the new deal expires.
Care Team Assistants in the province will also get a big pay increase. On top of the general 5.5 per cent increase, the CTAs will receive an additional 5 per cent pay bump by June of 2022.
Also in the new deal, acute care paramedics’ pay will now be matched to the wages being made by paramedics represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Outside of the issue of wages, the new collective deal also promises the creation of an equity, diversity, inclusion and reconciliation committee.
According to past press releases from The Health Care Council of Unions, wages were the biggest sticking point in negotiations with Nova Scotia’s health authorities.
A press release issued today claims austerity in the province brought healthcare workers’ wages below their counterparts across Canada.
“As part of the bargaining process, the unions conducted extensive wage analysis, comparing the wages of many health care occupations throughout the country,” states the press release. “That analysis showed that wages for many of Nova Scotia’s health care workers have fallen below where they should be in comparison to other provinces. This is in large part due to seven years of austerity by the Provincial government.”
The new deal will affect approximately 7,500 healthcare workers in varying fields across Nova Scotia.
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