Provincial government strikes severance deal with SLGA liquor store employees

The provincial government has struck a severance deal with hundreds of SLGA liquor store employees who are losing their jobs. It’s expected to run into the millions of dollars, a cost not included in the provincial budget.

“We had some negotiation meetings back in November and early December and the idea was to try to find some kind of good settlement for our members, the members that were going to be all losing their jobs,” said Bob Stadnichuck, vice president of SGEU.

The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed but it’s more than what was originally offered. That will add to the estimated overall cost of closing the 34 SLGA liquor stores.

“I believe back in October when we announced this originally, we thought it was going to be around the $15 million mark but we would have to update those numbers and look at the loss a little bit more closely now,” said Lori Carr, minister of liquor and gaming.

The loss was not accounted for in the current provincial budget.

“In the past budget, it would have been the expectation that we’re going to earn approximately $400,000,” Carr said.

The first store to close will be the Dewdney location in Regina on Jan. 25, which is one week before the lease on the building runs out.

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The government may be obligated to pay rent on 14 other leased locations even after the last store closes on March 31.

“SLGA just recently has negotiated new lease agreements with a lot of the stores in the province and those leases now will have to be paid out so that alone is going to cost them a lot of money,” Stadnichuck said.

The union said it negotiated the best deal it could with government. It said it did not receive all that it had asked for but believes most of the workers will be satisfied with what they will be receiving.