Latest news with #wageincrease
ABC News
3 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
South Australian doctors offered 13 per cent pay rise over four years
A planned full-day doctors strike has been suspended after the South Australian doctors' union struck a pay deal with the state government. The South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) and the state government have come to an "in principle" agreement of a 13 per cent wage rise over four years for all doctors. Doctors had been asking for a 30 per cent pay rise over three years and were due to strike tomorrow, after negotiations between the union and the government broke down. A stop-work meeting will still be held to discuss the deal. The government said the latest offer would provide a wage increase "over and above inflation". "It represents the government negotiating in good faith to honour our commitment for real wage increases but ones that are affordable for the budget so that we can keep on with the task of building a bigger and better health system," SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said. "Junior doctors in South Australia under this agreement will go from bottom of the pack to top half of the pack in terms of pay scale across the country." SASMOA president Laura Willington said the deal was an "attractive package" for junior doctors but acknowledged other states are also negotiating their enterprise bargaining agreements. "This is going to be very important for retaining these staff in South Australia as they will be the future doctors providing care for patients in South Australia," she said. The proposed salary increase for doctors over the next four years will be broken down to 3.5 per cent backdated to April 2025, 3.25 per cent each for the second and third year and 3 per cent for the fourth year. The deal also includes an increase of professional development payments from $8,500 to $10,000 and more dedicated time for non-clinical work which the union says "involves research, teaching and quality improvement projects". Attorney-General Kyam Maher said regional doctors would be offered more incentives as part of the agreement. "This provides that attraction and retention to almost $40,000 a year to try and attract doctors to our regional areas," he said. Ms Willington said the SASMOA council has endorsed the offer and has suspended strike action for six weeks before members vote. She said tomorrow's stop-work meeting would have "minimal" impact on healthcare as some elective surgeries have been postponed and patients have been informed. Meanwhile 200 hospital workers from the Flinders Medical Centre, the Repat and Noarlunga Hospital are on strike on Tuesday amid negotiations on wage and work conditions. United Workers Union (UWU) SA state secretary Demi Pnevmatikos said "impossible workloads and chronic short staffing" have contributed to delays in emergency departments when cubicles are not cleaned in time and patients are waiting to be moved. The union said workers at Whyalla's hospital hand-folded laundry covering 100 beds after its linen folding machine malfunctioned regularly. At the Women's and Children's Hospital, one theatre orderly was rostered to cover up to five surgical rooms, depending on demand. "Hospitals are routinely running now 50 per cent short in staff," Ms Pnevmatikos told ABC Radio Adelaide. The union has been asking for a 20 per cent pay rise for hospital workers since February, saying a hospital cleaner earns about $55,000 a year in South Australia while a theatre technician's salary is about $60,000. Ms Pnevmatikos said they are hearing members have had to get a second job because wages have dropped to "record lows". "These workers are being paid at least 20 per cent less than the next lowest paid [workers] in another state," she said. Mr Maher said the government was "very close" to coming to an agreement for disability and aged care workers in negotiations with the UWU.
National Post
3 days ago
- Business
- National Post
What the final offer from Canada Post includes, and why the union wants workers to vote no
Unionized postal workers are voting from July 21 to Aug. 1 on the final offer presented by Canada Post. Article content The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is encouraging workers to vote against it, as it calls it a forced vote that harms the 'foundation of free and fair collective bargaining.' Canada Post says the offer protects what is important to workers while reflecting the company's current reality. Article content Article content Article content Article content They also said the cost of living allowance (COLA), a benefit to employees that is paid when consumer prices increase, will have payments at a lower inflation threshold. If inflation rates exceed 7.16 per cent between Feb. 1, 2025 to Jan. 31, 2028, payments from COLA will be made. Article content The schedule for wage increases over the next four years remained unchanged from the May 21 offer. The first year would see a six per cent increase, the second year, three per cent, and two per cent in each of the third and fourth years. The increases will be retroactive to Feb. 1, 2024. Article content There were also changes to the short-term disability program, where employees will receive up to 80 per cent of their regular wages for up to 30 weeks, a benefit that before paid 70 per cent of regular wages for up to 17 weeks. Article content Article content To maintain the already existing benefits for current employees, new hires after the agreement is signed will need to work for six consecutive months before being added to the defined benefit component of the pension plan, which guarantees a set income for the employee's retirement years. Article content Article content There were also adjustments to the number of personal days, where employees will have 13 multi-use personal days a year, with seven paid out days a year, and up to five personal days being carried over every year. Article content For urban workers the agreement also allows for dynamic routing, a new system that would update delivery routes daily based on mail volume and delivery points. Letter carriers will still receive per-piece payments for neighbourhood mail on top of the actual time value until 2030, and compulsory overtime will be removed. Dynamic routing would ultimately put an end to fixed routes created by the letter carrier route measurement system manual (LCRMS) that was built to assess and adjust equitable workloads for individual letter carrier routes. For the regions that won't have that implemented, a load-levelling of the work should happen, aiming to make predictable and balanced routes for employees.
Japan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Central government workers to get a pay bump of at least 3%, sources say
Central government workers are likely to get a monthly pay hike of at least 3%, the biggest increase in 34 years, sources said Monday. The National Personnel Authority, which makes recommendations for wage changes for national public servants, has found it necessary to raise their salaries by 3% or more to bridge the wage gap with private-sector workers, who have been enjoying robust pay increases amid labor shortages, people familiar with the matter said. Bonus payments are likely to be raised as well, marking simultaneous hikes in monthly salaries and bonuses for a fourth year in a row, they added. The authority, which is expected to make this year's recommendation next month, expanded the scope of its survey to compare wages between employees at central government agencies and private companies. The upcoming proposal will reflect this move's wage-increasing effects. Last year, the authority called for raising monthly salaries by 2.76% and bonuses by 0.1 month's salary.
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Boeing Defense Workers Reject Contract In Sign of Labor Turmoil
Boeing Co. faces a risk of a strike in its St. Louis defense hub after union workers rejected a contract offer that would boost their wages by 20% over four years. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 837, which represents 3,200 Boeing defense workers in Missouri and Illinois, voted against the new terms Sunday.
CBC
22-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Construction trades strike ends in Cape Breton with what employers call 'historic' deal
The group representing unionized contractors in Cape Breton is calling a tentative deal to end the two-week construction trades strike "historic." The employers agreed to a 17.95 per cent wage increase over four years, including a seven per cent hike in the first year, said Bob Shepherd, president of the Nova Scotia Construction Labour Relations Association. "The reason it's historic is the percentage increase and the amount of money involved," he said. "It's really the largest wage package increase over a four-year period that the CLRA has negotiated with the building trades in our history." The association represents unionized contractors in the province's commercial and industrial sector. Shepherd said the tentative agreement was reached Friday and took effect Monday. It involves more than 10 unions in the Cape Breton Island Building and Construction Trades Council. Their president, Ernie Dalton, did not return a request for comment. However, on its website, the Labourers International Union of North America Local 1115 in Sydney confirmed an agreement has been reached and said workers were supposed to be back on the job Monday. In a release at the start of the strike, Dalton said workers were looking to recover wage concessions made during the pandemic. Shepherd said the pandemic and ensuing high inflation have hurt everyone. "The last number of years, everybody knows it's been challenging," he said. "If I go back eight years, the wages were modest, the increases were modest. "We realized that the wage increases would be a bit higher this time and I think the settlement reflects the challenges we've all had and I think it's a very fair settlement for all parties involved." The strike affected major infrastructure construction projects such as hospital redevelopments, Cape Breton University's medical building and at least one long-term care home. Shepherd said contractors and workers will have to try to make up the lost time on those projects. "Certainly it's hard. Construction season is mainly in the warmer weather, so yes, it is an impact, but everybody will work to recover the schedule." Some workers were still on picket lines on Tuesday. Shepherd said they are members of the sprinkler fitters union, which is not part of the local agreement. Picket line concerns remain He said that contract is negotiated at the national level. Despite that, the other unions are expected to go back to work this week, Shepherd said. "Our workers will have valid agreements and we are going to require them to go to work. The agreement with the union requires them to go to work. "However, we anticipate there may be some people that refuse to cross a picket line and we'll address that as the issues arise." The deal is subject to ratification votes that could take a couple of weeks, Shepherd said.
