‘Wallidays’ alone won’t solve our budget shortfall

There are any number of reasons why public servants are right to be outraged at Finance Minister Kevin Doherty’s suggestion of “Wallidays” that would require them take one unpaid day off a month.

Those being “asked” to stay home and not get ■ paid work under existing contracts — legally binding collective agreements outlining their conditions of employment. That means something and government needs to respect and recognize that.

Wallidays amounts to a five per cent pay cut.

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Moreover, those working 12-hour, four-daya-week shifts (i.e. nurses) would actually face a 7.5-per-cent pay cut if forced to take a day off every month. Is this sound strategy for a government that brags it attracted 900 more nurses?

While the government says “different scenarios

■ are being considered” it doesn’t appear to have thought much about the consequences of Wallidays. What would they do to our already strained health system? How does a government that once deemed virtually every health worker as “essential” now tell health providers they aren’t so essential one day a month?

Wouldn’t forcing teachers to take a day off

■ each month hurt your kids’ education? How do we make up the difference? Shorter summer holidays after delaying the start of the school year until after Labour Day?

While a few public sector workers have

■ received hefty salary increases, Premier Brad Wall’s government has mostly kept raises at or below the inflation rate — certainly less than what Wall and other MLAs automatically receive with their wages tied to annual cost-ofliving increases. Shouldn’t government politicians and staff be the first to take a pay cut?

Given then that government employees are

■ surely not solely responsible for the 2016-17 budget’s $1.2-billion deficit, is it really fair to balance on their backs? What about slowing down borrowing for capital spending projects that we will have an easier time doing without than many public sector workers?

Wall’s Wallidays have already gone badly gone off the rails ... but maybe there is a way to get them back on track. This would require a demonstration of compromise from both the Wall government and its workers/unions that we are not now seeing.

The first requirement is an acceptance of the reality that there are times when all employees must adjust to the economic/budget reality of their employer. Whether it’s the oilpatch, newspaper industry or government workers, layoffs and salary cuts are a hard-times reality.

Unpaid days off are actually more humane and not exactly novel. Governments of all stripes have tried it, including Ontario’s Bob Rae NDP government in the early 1990s. But they need to be implemented with thoughtfulness and respect.

The compromise begins with first making this program a volunteer one — perhaps with incentives to higher-paid, veteran public servants who might even want an arrangement with an extra day off a month. Only then can such an across-the-public-sector program proceed. And there will still have to be exemptions.

Certainly, it shouldn’t apply to lower-paid public workers ... say, those making less than $45,000 annually.

And it needs to be done in conjunction with other deficit-cutting measures, including an end to sales and fuel tax exemptions. Wall must show everyone (diners, farmers, construction companies, etc.) is doing their fair share.

Simply hammering civil servants with Wallidays doesn’t solve the budget problem.