HALIFAX – Doctors Nova Scotia says the government’s decision to take a hard stance on doctors’ contract demands is sending the wrong message to the province’s physicians.
“Physicians are very mobile and residents are making decisions about where to practice and if they don’t think that the province is physician-friendly, they may make decisions to practice elsewhere,” said Nancy MacCready-Williams, the CEO of Doctors Nova Scotia.
The association spoke out after Premier Stephen McNeil told reporters Wednesday evening that the group had initially asked for a 55 per cent pay hike. MacCready-Williams said the statement was “inaccurate” but said she wouldn’t go into more detail because she won’t negotiate through the media.
“A negotiating principle is you don’t negotiate in public and we’re honouring that,” she said. “For whatever reason, government chose not to honour that,” she said.
However, the premier’s office said McNeil stands by his comments. He told reporters Doctors Nova Scotia’s pay demands were “unconscionable.”
READ MORE: Doctors N.S. asked for 55% pay hike: Premier
The controversy is yet another spinoff from the government’s contentious public service sustainability act. The wage legislation doesn’t impose the same wage pattern on doctors as other public sector workers, however, it removes doctors’ rights to arbitration for four years.
Doctors Nova Scotia said while it has never had to resort to arbitration during contract negotiations, it’s a crucial part of negotiations because it creates an incentive for the government to compromise at the bargaining table.
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“Negotiating a deal and then going to arbitration, if one cannot resolve matters, is really the only way to resolve a breakdown at the table,” MacCready-Williams said.
After working under the same contract for the last seven years, doctors have been at the negotiating table since May. MacCready-Williams said talks are going well but McNeil doesn’t agree. He said wage requests like the one from Doctors Nova Scotia are the reason why the government introduced Bill 148.
“Talks were not going well at the table and I certainly was worried that we were going to end up with an arbitration that quite frankly, the province can’t afford,” said McNeil.
The final debate on Bill 148 kicks off at 12:03 a.m. on Friday and the bill is expected to pass third reading by the afternoon. However, the Liberals say it will only be proclaimed if it looks like one of the bargaining units is heading to arbitration.
Highway workers belonging to CUPE could be the first to trigger the bill as they’re heading to conciliation in mid-January.
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