|
Arbitrator says employer must pay Ontario health tax
Premier Dalton McGuinty contends that ruling does not set a precedent
 Toronto
- An arbitrator has ruled that a Guelph nursing home remains covered
by contract law negotiated in the 1980s and must pay a new health
premium that Ontario's Liberal government has levied on employees
across the province.
The premium, imposed to help the province cope with a $5.6-billion
deficit left behind by the former Eves-Harris Tory government, ranges
from as little as $60 to as much as $900 a year, depending on income
levels. It kicks in at about $20,000 a year.
In the 1980s, many union contracts included language making employers
responsible for paying health care premiums charged by earlier
Conservative governments. (The premiums were abolished by the David
Peterson Liberal government in 1990.)
Today, the language lives on in a number of contracts and, in the case
of the Guelph nursing home, remains valid, the arbitrator has
found. The case involves about 70 employees represented by the
United Food and Commercial Workers.
'Taxpayers will pay'
However, Premier Dalton McGuinty argues that the Guelph ruling does
not set a precedent. An earlier decision involving an Air Canada Jazz
contract came to the opposite conclusion, he notes.
"This is a tax provision found within the Income Tax Act and our
intention is that taxpayers will pay this new premium," McGuinty told
reporters.
The Liberals deliberately called the new levy a premium rather than a
tax, hoping to make it more acceptable to voters after promising when
they were elected in 2003 not to raise taxes.
Finance Minister Greg Sorbara says he expects both arbitration
decisions to be appealed to the courts.
Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, says
provisions covering health care premiums remain in numerous union
contracts and many more challenges will arise if the province
continues to insist that workers, rather than employers, are
responsible for paying the cost. NUPGE
Web posted by NUPGE:
26 October 2004
More
News
News Archive
Media releases
|
