N.S. public-sector workers to see payouts in $470M deal stemming from Bill 148 challenge

More than 10 years ago, the Liberal government of the day introduced and passed Bill 148. It's legislation it ultimately used to impose wage restraint on thousands of unionized civil servants across the province. In February, a Supreme Court judge ruled that legislation unconstitutional. And on Monday, lawyers for the government and unions were in court to say that they have an agreement between the two sides to remedy the matter. Officials say that the total cost of that remedy could be as much as $470 million. Now, while that includes things such as court costs and some administrative work, the biggest cost is lump sum payments that will go out to about 81,000 people who were unionized civil servants in the province during a four-year period. That includes teachers, health care workers, nurses, civil servants, and other unionized workers. broadly speaking, the most someone can receive from a lump sum payment is $5,000. There's annual calculations for each of four years that get to that, along with a fourth payment on top of that that would be for people who have missed out on what's known as the long service award. Today, the Minister of Finance says that he was pleased that the government and lawyers for the unions were able to reach an agreement without having to have the judge settle the matter. We're happy to have this behind us. This is something that is a legacy thing from, obviously, from the liberal era, from 2015, from 2017. I think there was an understanding. There was certainly some sense at that time that this would end up in court. It did. When you're facing an unknown, you always, that sort of weighs more heavily on you. I can say that weighed on us. So to have reached an agreement with the unions on this matter, there is a sense of, at least it's not an unknown anymore, and we'll deal with it. The president of the province's largest union heralded this decision and called it a victory for workers. It was unconstitutional, and it impacted bargaining. And that was a very big win of the day, to be able to come to remedy with government on this matter. While the president of the Federation of Labor was also pleased that an agreement has been reached, she noted that it could have been done sooner and at a time when it would have cost the province less than what it will cost today. When Tim Houston was first elected, he said that he would make this whole, and he backtracked when he was elected. So this could have been fixed four, three and a half years ago, however many years ago he was elected, instead of waiting as long as we did. Marsman is getting at the fact that the province's financial picture has taken a turn for the worse in the last few years. The most recent update on the provincial deficit is at $1.4 billion. The government has accounted for this settlement already because, as Laura told reporters on Monday, when the judge's ruling came out last February, they started preparing for what the cost of a settlement could be. And that cost is going to factor into the fiscal year of 2025-26, the books of which have already been closed. And that means that this settlement will not push the deficit any further than where it already stands. Michael Gorman, CBC News, Halifax.