By Thia James

Bid to halt out-of-scope city worker wage hikes thwarted

Aug 13, 2013 | 4:45 PM

Councillor Tim Scharkowski’s bid to temporarily freeze the wages of ‘out-of-scope’ city managers – including the Prince Albert Fire Department and the Prince Albert Police Service – has been defeated.

On Monday evening, council voted against his motion to not increase the wages of the non-unionized management employees and to review the matter during the 2014 budget cycle.

The freeze would be in place because of the upcoming contract negotiations with the unions representing city employees.

A few members on council questioned the need for a motion to freeze the wages until the budget deliberations begin. Among the newer members of council was a consensus that more information about how council dealt with the ‘out-of scope’ managers’ wage increases in the past is needed.

Coun. Martin Ring said he is “uncomfortable” with the motion’s wording, but council should have the city manager explain the process for how to deal with ‘out of scope’ employees.

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However, he cautioned council to also look at the retention of employees. “We’ve lost some terrific employees just in this last year alone. We lost somebody to Regina, we’ve lost another person to Saskatoon,” he said and added that it may not only be family reasons pulling people away, but wage issues too.

Only three councillors voted in favour of Scharkowski’s motion, leaving the remaining four councillors who were in attendance, to defeat it.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames