'Where do they get their math from': SGEU calls out Crown executives for pay increases

Recently revealed earnings of Crown corporation executives in Saskatchewan have stirred union leaders to accuse the government of hypocrisy. 

Last year, former premier Brad Wall announced he wanted to reduce overall public sector compensation by 3.5 per cent to achieve a savings of $250 million during the 2017-2018 fiscal year — a goal never realized.

MLAs, deputy ministers and Crown heads did take a 3.5 per cent salary cut for themselves, but only for a year.

This week, a compensation disclosure report for the province's Crown corporations showed those at the top saw an increase to their earnings over the previous year. 

3.5% cut still on the table: SGEU

For example, SaskPower's CEO Michael Marsh saw his salary rise by about $80,000 to bank more than half a million dollars. 

"Where do they get their math from? A 3.5 per cent cut doesn't add up to a $100,000 a year increase," Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union President Bob Bymeon said Friday. 

He said around 15,000 members working in the Crown corporations and public service have been without a contract for three years, with Bymeon saying wages are the sticking point. 

Some bargaining units have reported that a 3.5 per cent rollback is still on the table, while the ask has been removed for others, Bymeon said.

Government defends pay increases

"They are very hypocritical. They talk about how they got to tighten belts on wages in this province yet the people close to them are getting huge increases, double-digit increases, at a period of time where our employees haved looked at zeros for the past three years."

The government said Crown CEOS did indeed take a salary cut from May 2017 to April 2018. 

In an email statement to CBC, the government explained the figures in this week's report includes pay besides salary, like overtime and vacation payouts.

According to the government, a change in the fiscal reporting schedule for the Crowns is part of the reason why it looked like executives earned more money last year. 

Two years ago, the fiscal year for Crown corporations was moved to March from December. Moving the fiscal year created what the government is calling an "anomaly" when it came to the reporting of what executives made for "salary holdbacks."

A "holdback" is money earned when an executive and its corporation realizes its goals, essentially a salary top-up.

The government said what appears as a pay increase from 2016-17 to 2017-18 "may be due to a holdback not received in 2016-17, but received in 2017-18."

"It is important that Saskatchewan Crown Corporations, including SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, and SGI, remain competitive to recruit and retain the talent needed to continue the high quality of service that Saskatchewan residents expect," the statement reads. 

Bymeon calls that "hogwash," saying those getting the top-ups are longtime bureaucrats who don't seem to be going anywhere.

Teachers should be mad, says union

In a statement, the Saskatchewan Teacher's Federation said teachers should be angry because while it asked teachers to accept cuts, Crown CEOs earned raises. 

Teachers recently inked a two-year collective agreement through an arbitrator, which freezes salaries for the first year and a one per cent increase at the end of the second year of the contract, which expires August 31, 2019. 

Taxpayers Federation weighs in

"We need to see more restraint from government. We need to see them making the tough decisions," Todd MacKay, prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation, said of the CEO's earnings.  

"It's not fun obviously for anybody to see a pay cut, but we definitely don't need to see big pay jumps. That's what we're seeing here, taxpayers across Saskatchewan have every right to be pretty concerned about that."