The union representing government employees is angry that Crown corporation CEOs are still seeing an increase in salaries.
The province says it’s necessary to keep high level executives in their positions — a stance the union disputes.
The numbers come from the latest Saskatchewan Payee Disclosure Report dating back to April of last year. While CEOs and Deputy Ministers agreed to a 3.5 per cent roll back, the numbers still show significant pay increases, some over six figures, for senior management officials with Crowns.
“We haven’t seen a wage increase for over three years, most of our members,” said SGEU president Bob Bymoen. “Yet, the government keeps stacking these huge pay increases for their senior people, CEOs and people around them.”
However, in a statement the province says the 3.5 per cent salary roll back was applied. The government added inflation in the report is due to a number of incentives, including severance packages, vacation payouts and salary holdbacks from the year prior, as well as its performance pay structure.
The government also says holdbacks are a portion of annual compensation awarded when an individual or corporation meets its goals for the year. Due to the holdback, it reflects targets met in the previous year.
According to the government, performance pay scales are standard across many industries and play an important role when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees for Crowns.
The union feels the money should be spread out more evenly.
“These CEOs in this latest stuff are getting in the areas of $100,000 a year increases,” Bymoen said. “That’s getting close to double the average salary of our bargaining units and more than double our salaries in some of our bargaining units.”
The government says it will continue to review its compensation plans to ensure it is in line with market conditions. It also says the Crown sector should achieve targeted reductions for the current fiscal year.
Based on a report by CTV Regina's Joey Slattery
