Alberta backs away from appeal of judge’s ruling on controversial labour law

EDMONTON – The Alberta government has abandoned — for now — its fight against a court ruling that said the province unfairly stripped the bargaining rights of its largest union.

Government lawyer Hugh McPhail advised three justices of Alberta’s Court of Appeal Monday that he was adjourning the case without setting a future date.

McPhail did not give a reason for the adjournment. He told the justices “the situation should be clear in a couple of months,” but did not elaborate.

Both the province and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, or AUPE, were to speak to the adjournment later Monday.

The justices had been prepared to hear arguments on why they should overturn a decision delivered in February by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Denny Thomas.

Thomas, in his ruling, ordered that Alberta’s Public Service Salary Restraint Act be put on hold pending a further review of concerns voiced by the AUPE.

The act, passed late last year, imposed an austere four-year wage deal on the public-sector union while revoking its right to binding arbitration.

AUPE was given binding arbitration decades ago as compensation for legislation removing its right to strike.

The deal included wage freezes or one per cent pay hikes.

The union told Thomas the law is unfair and deals a fatal blow to its ability to bargain.

Thomas agreed.

In his written decision, Thomas said the act “guts the bargaining process by removing an effective leverage on the part of the workers, who as a result of other provincial laws (that ban their right to strike) cannot withdraw their labour.

“The effect of the legislation is to emasculate the AUPE … Alberta did not meet its obligation to negotiate in good faith.”

Dave Hancock, then deputy premier and now the premier, announced in February the government would appeal Thomas’s ruling over errors in fact and in law.

Then-premier Alison Redford said the law was necessary to match similar wage deals signed by doctors and teachers to help balance the budget.

The union represents more than 22,000 government staffers, from social workers to prison guards.

Workers have been without a contract since March 2013.

The two sides are still talking, but no agreement has been reached.

Last year, Redford’s government also passed a second bill imposing severe six and seven-figure fines and sanctions on AUPE if it launched illegal strikes.

That law remains in force.

The salary restraint law is just one flashpoint of discontent between Alberta and its public-sector unions.

Hancock’s government is also debating this session a bill to revamp public-sector pensions to keep them sustainable as the population ages.

However, unions say the pension systems are on track to erase $7 billion in unfunded liability.

They say the revised law will see staff working longer for less pay and they are particularly concerned with the plan to do away with mandatory rules for pensions to keep pace with inflation.