The provincial government will be in court again this week to appeal a recent decision in favour of the province's unions regarding wage negotiations.
Earlier this month a justice at the Court of Queen’s Bench granted the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) an injunction against the UCP government’s Bill 9, a bill which would delay wage negotiations guaranteed in the contracts of around 70,000 public sector employees.
After Court of Queen's Bench Justice Eric Macklin granted the injunction in favour of the AUPE employees, who were fighting against a bill that would delay wage negotiation talks until Oct. 30, the UCP filed an appeal of the decision, which will be heard by the court of appeal on Thursday morning.
Earlier this month St. Albert nurses said Macklin granting the injunction felt like a victory for unions.
Orissa Shima, a nurse at the Sturgeon Hospital and president of the local union, said earlier this month that the original bill, Bill 9, was offensive to many nurses and discouraging.
Shima said the nurses negotiated and agreed to take no raises for two years, which was to be followed by wage negotiations being reopened. Shima said nurses knew opening the talks again didn’t necessarily mean they would get a raise, but they took the zero-per-cent increase knowing there would be some discussions.
“So to have the rug kind of pulled out from underneath us and to have those talks halted and actually breaching the collective agreement, I think it's a bit demoralizing for us as nurses,” Shima said earlier this month.
The court of appeal will hear the matter at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning.
