About 5,000 CUPE New Brunswick members are upset about not receiving retroactive pay which was included in new collective agreements with the province.
The union has filed a complaint with the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board seeking the compensation with interest.
CUPE NB president Stephen Drost says some workers are owed thousands of dollars and he thinks it’s insulting since the deals were signed four months ago.
“These workers have debts. They have credit cards, mortgages, car payments, and child care payments – and they can’t default on any of that,” says Drost.
Many of the workers went on strike last fall after negotiations broke down between the union and the province.
Deals were reached with ten out of eleven CUPE locals on November 19 and new contracts were signed in December.
The province had 90 days to pay under the law.
Department of Finance and Treasury Board spokesperson Erika Jutras says there are approximately 22,000 employees whose retroactive pay has been or will be paid within the 90 day timeline.
She says there are about 3,500 active employees who will be receiving their retroactive pay late.
Jutras says this process has created unusually large workloads for payroll officers who are doing manual calculations for thousands of workers and additional time is needed.
Drost notes how the Higgs government recently announced the province had a budget surplus.
“It’s just another insult and it’s extremely disrespectful to these frontline workers that were there before the pandemic, during the pandemic and are still there today,” Drost added.
The full statement from the Department of Finance and Treasury Board:
“Back pay owing varies by employee depending on their salary, period of employment and hours worked.
Eleven collective agreements have been signed since December 2021. They include:
- Part I: CUPE 1190, 1251, 1840, 1418 and Crown Prosecutors (PIPSC).
- Part II: CUPE 2745, Professional Support (NBU)
- Part III: CUPE 1252, Nurses, Nurse Managers, SHCP (NBU)
This has created an unusually large workload for payroll officers, who must complete separate individual manual retroactive pay calculations for thousands of workers.
While retroactive payments have been made within the prescribed timeline for many agreements, it has not been possible for all agreements.
In Part I, retroactive payments have been processed in time for CUPE 1840 (court stenos) and Crown Prosecutors.
There is a delay with the other groups in Part I (CUPE 1190, 1251 and 1418). However, work to adjust their pay rates is complete, and these groups are receiving the negotiated pay rates.
In Part II, retroactive payments were made on time for Professional Support. Retroactive payments for CUPE 2745 will be completed in April, roughly a month beyond the 90-day timeline. CUPE 2745 agreed to extending the deadline. Retroactive payments were made on time for all new Part III collective agreements.
Given the high volume of transactions, and to ensure accuracy, additional time is required. We are working diligently to process all retro-pay transactions as quickly as possible and have allocated additional resources to assist with this work.
Government has communicated with the unions concerned to explain the situation and request an extension. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue to implement these changes.”
