We give government a lot of grief around here for various wacky and wasteful decisions, but from time to time, like a blind squirrel finding a nut, they really do something smart.

Take the BC Government, for example. Their net-zero mandate for public sector bargaining has been the single best thing they have done this term. This is how they explain net-zero:

The impact of the global financial situation on the Government’s finances means that there will be no money for compensation increases in the 2010 round of collective bargaining.  Government’s priority is to protect core services. Holding the line on wage increases means there is more funding available for health care, education and other vital services.

The Province established Mandate 2010 to guide public sector employers and employers’ associations in their bargaining. The goal of Mandate 2010 is to achieve voluntarily-negotiated collective agreements in the public sector that will continue to support the Province in delivering public services in a cost-effective and financially prudent manner.

Mandate 2010 directs negotiators to develop bargaining plans that do not call for wage increases, but allow flexibility. Generally speaking, Mandate 2010 provides for:

1. A two-year term
2. No net increases in total compensation costs
3. Compensation trade-offs - savings found through (mutually-agreed) changes in collective agreements may be used to fund compensation increase

B.C.'s public sector has approximately 307,000 unionized workers who provide our province with vital services. To date, about two-thirds of those employees have successfully re-negotiated agreements under the current net-zero mandate.

But now BC’s public sector unions are getting restless and are out to scuttle net-zero. The BC Teachers Federation got the ball rolling with ridiculous opening demands totalling $2.184 billion in additional spending—five per cent of the BC Government’s annual budget. They make no secret of how they wanted their pay raises covered: they want to cut your pay (by raising taxes) to increase their own. And they want a boost to their pensions—which they themselves admit is the “best kept secret” in employee benefits.

The BCGEU apparently has a $37 million war chest ready to fight net-zero on behalf of their 65,000 workers (that’s $570 a head).

BC Finance Minister Kevin Falcon is sticking to his guns:

Mr. Falcon, however, said even workers coming off of two years of a wage freeze shouldn’t expect an automatic increase.

“I think they should take a very hard look at what’s happening around the world,” Mr. Falcon said, citing layoffs of public-sector workers in California and economic problems elsewhere. “When you look around the world and see what happens to governments that are not financially disciplined and don’t have their financial houses in order – I would argue that that puts public-sector workers in a worse position, when governments aren’t demonstrating that they’re fiscally responsible.”

Meanwhile, the Conference Board of Canada is warning that labour strife will be a big problem in 2012.

Hopefully it will: that means Minister Falcon and his government are sticking to their net-zero guns.

Want to show your support for net-zero? Sign our petition asking the BC Government to balance the budget by 2013, as they have promised to do. Net-zero is the only way they’ll get there.