CBC: Giving workers unpaid days off ‘not pleasant … but fair,’ says former Ont. premier
February 17, 2017 —
It’s a plan that’s already getting its fair share of nicknames – Wall’s Weekends or perhaps Brad’s Breaks: require public sector workers take unpaid days off to tackle Saskatchewan’s deficit.
It’s a move that has been tried in other jurisdictions, with varying results.
Manitoba, for instance, has enacted unpaid days in the past and is considering doing so again. Done right, the approach stands to offer governments some savings, said University of Manitoba professor emeritus Paul Thomas.
Fact is, said Thomas, the “cost of wages and benefits are such a huge cost of the provincial government budget. You can’t use retirement and voluntary departures and holding the line on spending and achieve the savings that you’re aiming [for].”