SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The only territorial government employees that will actually have their salaries frozen for the next two years are long-serving workers who have reached the top of their pay grids.

Kam Lake MLA says wage freezes hurt long serving government employees who have reached the top of their pay grid. - NNSL file photo

This has been learned after Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod announced a wage freeze in the legislative assembly Feb. 19. He said it was being done to save the government money, something McLeod said is necessary to keep government expenditures in line with its revenues.

"The GNWT has started doing its part by making the difficult decision to freeze any economic adjustments to the salaries of deputy ministers, senior managers," McLeod announced. The freeze also affects excluded employees - those who hold positions such as executive assistants, human resource professionals and government lawyers.

According to senior cabinet communications adviser Andrew Livingstone, some workers covered by McLeod's announcement will still get raises.

"Employees will still get their step increases - if their jobs are re-evaluated they would get the new wage and continue getting steps until they max out ... under the pay level they are currently in," Livingstone stated in an e-mail.

"What they would not get is performance bonuses where they get an extra step upon exemplary job performance."

The government has said withholding bonuses, merit pay and the salary freeze for the next two years will save taxpayers about $3.8 million.

Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart said that he supports freezing bonuses and merit pay for some of the best paid government employees but he believes the move hurts others who are not among the GNWT's top wage earners. He grilled the finance minister earlier in the week about the lower-paid employees, who he said would be adversely affected.

"The positions I was advocating for are not senior management positions. Many of them have equivalent positions on the unionized side of the (government) labour force," Testart said.

"If two equivalent positions have the same name such as administrative assistant - one is unionized and one is not - the unionized individual is going to see an increase and more benefits than someone who is excluded. That is a concern."

Testart said he's concerned long-serving GNWT employees are essentially being penalized for their loyalty.

The wage freeze would not affect the majority of the 4,000 government employees who are members of the Union of Northern Workers. The government and the union are currently negotiating a new collective agreement.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Delta MLA Frederick Blake introduced a bill on Feb. 25 that would freeze salaries at current levels for all MLAs for the next two years.

MLAs would have received an automatic pay increase of 1.1 percent on April 1 of this year and next.

"In follow-up to the fiscal update previously provided by the Minister of Finance, Robert C. McLeod, and the announcement that the salaries for senior managers and excluded GNWT employees will be frozen for the next two years, MLAs wanted to follow suit with a salary freeze," said Blake.

Regular MLAs currently earn a base salary of $103,851.