Canada : Province denies request from striking MYS to use its own surplus to up wages
The province will not authorize plans for a wage increase for staff from Macdonald Youth Services' crisis stabilization program, the organization revealed Tuesday.
Staff from the program, which offers crisis services
to Manitoba children, youth and families, have been on strike since Aug. 2. Employees are reuqesting a two per cent wage increase for each of four years, starting April 1, 2014.
On Monday, the province officially denied a request from Macdonald Youth Services management to use its annual surplus funding to boost pay. In the same statement, it advised the agency as a whole would receive no funding increases for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
The province is currently the sole funder of the Youth Crisis Stabilization System program at Macdonald Youth Services. Funding has remained static since April 2013 at $2.4 million per year.
Macdonald Youth Services management says it supports staff requests for an increased wage, but its hands are tied by provincial funding decisions.
"MYS has been a pawn in a dispute between the Province of Manitoba and the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union," said Erma Chapman, CEO at Macdonald Youth Services, in the release. "They need to solve this now and get people back to work for Manitoba families."
The release also writes off accusations of stalling from the MGEU.
"Despite knowing the agency required government permission to spend its surplus, the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union ... has routinely accused MYS of stalling," the release states. "MYS has always been willing to use its surplus funds to resolve the strike but had to wait for the government's decision."
MGEU had negotiated a deal with the previous government, which the government failed to finalize, the release reads.
Last year, counsellors from the Youth Crisis Stabilization System answered 6,000 calls, and its mobile crisis unit attended 1,400 calls. As a result of the strike, the program is offering reduced service levels.
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