The Nova Scotia minimum wage is increasing to $15.70 an hour on April 1. (Robert Owen-Wahl via Pixabay)
Nova Scotia’s minimum wage is set to go up a total of $1.30 an hour this year.
The first bump will come on April 1, when it rises to $15.70, a raise of 50 cents an hour, and the second increase will be on Oct. 1 when it goes to $16.50.
The Nova Scotia government is touting is as the largest minimum wage increase in the province’s history.
“Inflation continues to put pressure on families across the province. We need to do what we can to help,” Nolan Young, minister of Labour, Skills and Immigration, said in a news release.
The province says that with the Oct. 1 raise, Nova Scotia workers earning minimum wage and working 37.5 hours a week will see their annual pay cheques rise by $2,535.
About 33,700 Nova Scotians earned minimum wage between April 2024 and October 2024.
The minimum wage on P.E.I. rose to $16 an hour on Oct. 1, 2024. It’s $15.60 an hour in Newfoundland and Labrador and $15.30 an hour in New Brunswick.
Unionized workers with the Region of Queens went on strike Thursday morning. (Rick Conrad photo)
UPDATED THURSDAY, 4:45 P.M.
Engineering and public works employees with the Region of Queens are on strike.
About 40 members of Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers set up picket lines at three locations in Liverpool on Thursday morning.
The workers are responsible for maintaining the region’s streets, sidewalks, parks and other properties. They also work in waste and recycling facilities as well as water and sewage treatment plants.
The union and the region have been negotiating for about a year. Their last contract expired March 31.
Jim Sponagle is the business manager of Local 1928. He was on the picket line this morning with some members near the Hank Snow Museum in Liverpool.
“There are still three outstanding issues: being forced to work weekends for straight time, no overtime, that’s one big issue. Wages still nowhere where they need to be. Wages are lower than any other municipality, jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada.
“The temporary employees are still an issue. I call it a union-busting measure where the employer has tried to carve out a work group from our collective agreement that have been in our collective agreement for decades. I don’t understand their position other than the fact that maybe they could deem them non-union and have them perform our work during a strike.”
Sponagle said both sides were back at the bargaining table on Tuesday, but he said the region’s offer hadn’t improved much from the one that members resoundingly rejected in December.
Members voted 97 per cent in favour of strike action. They have been in a legal strike position since Dec. 11.
“From our last strike mandate, the only change was they offered a half a per cent on Year 2 and a half a per cent on Year 3” of a new contract, Sponagle said.
The region issued a news release Thursday morning, saying that it filed a lockout notice with the province’s labour minister in response to the strike.
The region said all municipal services will continue as usual, including garbage collection and snow plowing.
Pam Lovelace, the acting CAO for the Region of Queens, told QCCR on Thursday that the strike took her by surprise.
“I was not informed in any way there was going to be a strike today,” Lovelace said.
“Although knowing that the union members and their leadership wouldn’t meet with us at the table on Tuesday to actually negotiate with a provincial conciliator, that was a good indication that they weren’t willing to reach a deal.”
A provincially appointed conciliator is a disinterested third party who will sometimes meet with both parties together, or meet with each side individually and communicate proposals back and forth. Each labour negotiation is unique and the conciliator generally gets a feel for whether it would be productive for both sides to meet face to face with the conciliator present.
Lovelace says that in this case, union negotiators refused to meet with the region and the conciliator together, and would meet only with the conciliator.
“And so because of that we weren’t actually able to have effective negotiations, we had to use the middle man of the conciliator rather than having constructive conversations.”
Union members are some of the lowest paid municipal employees in Atlantic Canada, at a time when regional councillors and senior staff have complained it’s difficult to fill job vacancies.
Some unionized jobs at the region pay less than $18 an hour. And some Red Seal-certified mechanics and technicians with the region make no more than $27 an hour, compared to $40 an hour in other jurisdictions.
Both sides were working on adjusting wage grids to alleviate some of those discrepancies. But the union’s Sponagle said there still hasn’t been enough movement from the region. Their latest proposal amounted to a two per cent raise in each year of a deal, he said.
Sponagle said his members want to get back to work. But they also want a deal that keeps pace with what municipal employees in other places are making.
“I dealt with other jurisdictions in P.E.I. when the employer understood. When they came with a fair wage increase it was hard to say no. It just seems this employer doesn’t want to work with the union. But somebody doesn’t like unions here at the Region of Queens.
“This is the first time since 1973 that I’m aware of IBEW Local 1928 going on strike. It’s not something we typically do. We like to do our work, we don’t complain and we go home.”
The union is still waiting to have hearing dates set for its unfair labour practice complaint against the region. It alleges that the region told some members that they still had to come to work in the event of a work stoppage or risk being fired.
Lovelace said the region is looking for a fair deal and to get employees back to work. But that’s only if the union is willing to return to the bargaining table.
“I’m already at the table, I’m waiting for IBEW Local 1928 to arrive at the table. And we will continue to operate and the services that the residents expect and hopefully we will see the leadership of Local 1928 come back to the table.”
Lovelace said managers, supervisors and third-party contractors would make sure that services aren’t interrrupted.
Brian Anthony, left, vice-president of Local 18 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, stands with fellow union members on the picket line outside the Main Street post office in Liverpool on Monday. (Rick Conrad)
Canada Post workers were back on the picket line on Monday in Liverpool hopeful that a deal can be reached to get them back to work.
About 20 members of Local 18 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers were outside the post office on Main Street as cars honked their support.
Brian Anthony is the vice-president of Local 18. He told QCCR that four days into the strike, morale is high.
“We’re here until we get an agreement. Resonse has been good. We’ve got a good turnout here and a good response from the cars driving by. We had a guy stop by and give us some donuts and coffee today. I think the public understands that we all just need a fair deal.”
More than 55,000 Canada Post employees went on strike across the country on Friday. The Bridgewater-based Local 18 covers Hubbards to Shelburne and has about 60 members.
Union members say they want fair wages to keep pace with inflation, safe working conditions, pension protections and better benefits.
Canada Post’s latest offer included pay raises of 11.5 per cent over four years and a pledge to preserve the defined benefit pension plan for current employees.
A special federal mediator met with both sides on Monday. But Canada Post said they remain far apart on the major issues.
On the Liverpool picket line on Monday morning, Anthony said workers are hoping for a short walkout, but they’re prepared to stick it out.
“We don’t want to lose what we already have. We’re hoping there’ll be a settlement sometime soon. I think we’re optimistic. Everyone is still in good spirits. We’re hoping for a short strike for sure.”
Mail service is suspended during the strike. But Canada Post and the union have assured people that government cheques will still be delivered.
Workers plan to be on the picket lines in Liverpool from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
2018 was the last time there was a work stoppage at Canada Post. The rotating strikes lasted 31 days before the federal government stepped in an legislated employees back to work.
The Nova Scotia minimum wage is increasing to $15.20 an hour on April 1. (Robert Owen-Wahl via Pixabay)
By Rick Conrad
Nova Scotia’s minimum wage will be going up by 20 cents an hour to $15.20 on April 1.
Jill Balser, Nova Scotia’s minister of labour, skills and immigration, announced the raise in a news release on Wednesday.
Nova Scotia’s minimum wage review committee established a formula which would adjust the minimum wage by the national consumer price index, plus one percentage point, from the rate set the previous April.
This year, that means an increase of 4.7 per cent over last April’s rate, which was $14.50 an hour.
“This year has been very difficult for many Nova Scotians – business owners and workers alike,” Balser said in the release.
“I am grateful to the minimum wage review committee for putting forward the perspective of both employers and employees so we can ensure a balanced approach to increasing the minimum wage.”
Even with the adjustment, the basic rate is still below what some researchers say is a living wage.
In a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, released in September, the living wage is defined as the hourly rate that a household with two full-time workers and two children (ages 2 and 7) requires to meet its basic needs.
The group includes government transfers such as the Canada Child Benefit and deductions, as well as employment income to arrive at a living wage.
For the southern region of Nova Scotia, which includes Queens County, the living wage was calculated at $25.05 an hour.
The group has called on the Nova Scotia government to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour.
According to the province, about 26,200 Nova Scotians or six per cent of workers, worked for minimum wage from April 2022 to March 2023. They worked primarily in retail, food and accommodation.
It’s business as usual at schools across Nova Scotia as the province and the union representing school support workers have come to a tentative agreement.
The deal still needs to be ratified by the 5,400 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
The tentative agreement was announced early Wednesday morning.
The union was poised to strike at 12:01 Friday.
CUPE represents a wide range of school support workers across Nova Scotia including bus drivers, cleaners, maintenance and tradespeople, Early Childhood Educators, Educational Program Assistants and Teaching Assistants, and food services staff.
The union was fighting for increased wages.
A petition circulated by CUPE indicates most members earn below Nova Scotia’s median wage of $35,000 per year an amount which has fallen significantly behind inflation.
Neither union executives or government officials are willing to comment on the details until union membership has had a chance to review and vote on the tentative agreement.
Union officials did say they will work to get the information to members and arrange a vote as quickly as possible.
Students may be getting an extra-long weekend if the province and the union representing school support workers can’t come to an agreement on a new contract.
Approximately 5,400 members of CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees will be in a legal strike position effective 12:01 Friday morning.
CUPE represents a wide range of school support workers across Nova Scotia including bus drivers, cleaners, maintenance and tradespeople, Early Childhood Educators, Educational Program Assistants and Teaching Assistants, and food services staff.
The sticking point in negotiations appears to be wages.
In a petition circulated by CUPE in November the union states the “majority of members earn below Nova Scotia’s median wage of $35,000 per year. Our wages have fallen significantly behind inflation. More than half of our members have had to take other jobs to make ends meet, and the vast majority find that wage increases since 2015 have not met our financial needs.”
Because the union represents so many people across the province the impact of a strike will be felt differently depending on the region.
CUPE Local 4682 represents workers on the South Shore.
The South Shore Regional Centre for Education sent a notification explaining the impacts a strike will have on schools:
Grades Pre-Primary – 6 students will continue to attend classes at their school.
Learning for most Grades 7 – 12 students will shift to online except for students who regularly attend class in the learning center who can continue to do so.
Bussing will not be available for any students, unless previous arrangements are in place for the child to be bussed privately.
Schools will not be available for before or after school use, except for any existing childcare programs.
Extracurricular activities that require the use of the interior of the school or school buses are suspended. However, class trips or other activities that do not involve interior school use or buses, as well as sports on fields and school grounds, may continue.
In the statement released April 14, the Regional Centre goes on to say, “We all hope that we can reach an agreement to avoid a labour disruption. However, we must continue to develop plans to ensure that student learning can continue, if a strike occurs.”
