The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) says it will be returning to talks with the provincial government in early August for its civil service bargaining unit.
Talks have been scheduled Aug. 8 and 9 between the two parties — the same days originally set for a hearing at the labour board requesting an arbitrator.
In December, the union voted 94 per cent against the most recent tentative agreement.
READ MORE: NSGEU to ask for binding arbitration in negotiations with Nova Scotia
Two months ago the union announced it was filing for arbitration after recent talks with the province had reached an impasse. The union was asking for binding arbitration which would see both parties present their demands to an arbitrator or arbitration board which renders a binding decision setting out terms of the collective agreement.
A release Friday stating the union would return to talks said the government “has assured” it would not oppose arbitration if the two conciliation dates in August “prove to be unsuccessful.”
“We’re not leaving any stone unturned,” NSGEU president Jason MacLean told Global News. “What we want to do is get a deal for our membership and by getting that deal, what we need to do is get back to the table.”
READ MORE: NSGEU says negotiations with province at standstill, files for conciliation
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil has said in the past his government would not allow arbitration as a way to maintain fiscal targets. He said if any union pushed for arbitration, he would proclaim Bill 148, which would impose a wage package on the union.
Asked in May if he would proclaim the bill, McNeil had said the government would “look at our options.”
In a statement to Global News late Friday afternoon, the government once again said if the matter goes to arbitration it will consider its options.
“Using the Public Services Sustainability Act (Bill 148) would protect against arbitrated wage settlements that put our fiscal plan at risk,” the statement reads.
MacLean said he’s said several times before he’s not concerned should Bill 148 be declared. If it is, he said, the union would fight it in the courts, “which would cost millions and millions of dollars.”
“But since they have surplus year after year, that shouldn’t much matter to Stephen McNeil,” he said.
The union’s last agreement for its civil service unit expired in March 2015.
—With files from Steve Silva and Marieke Walsh, Global News
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