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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Ontario Labor Arbiter Kevin Burkett ordered Tuesday the province to hike the salaries of nurses and other staff by four percent over two years. The decision would favor about 17,000 unionized nurses and other medical staff in over 60 Ontario hospitals.

Burkett issued the favorable ruling to the nurses after he declared Ontario’s wage freeze unreasonable.

Because of the decision, Ontario’s plan to reduce its $24.7 billion budget deficit would be delayed. It is also expected to lead to reductions in patient care, said Premier Dalton McGuinty.

McGuinty previously requested Ontario’s one million public workers to endure a two-year wage freeze while the province is fixing its fiscal problems. Some public workers agreed to McGuinty’s request, but others such as the unionized nurses brought their argument to the labor arbitrator.

In October, arbiter Martin Teplitsky granted University of Toronto professors a 4.5 percent salary hike over two years, while a month earlier, another arbiter favored 7,000 long-term care homes workers with a two percent pay increase for this year.

In all these three decisions, the arbiters cited lack of legislation of a wage freeze as the reason behind their decision. Ontario passed a legislation imposing a two-year wage hike early this year, but it affected only 350,000 non-unionized public employees.

Tom Closson, the president of the Ontario Hospital Association said that if other unionized workers bring their petition for a wage hike and win, the 154 hospitals in the province would need $280 million savings to fund a similar wage hike. Salaries eat up 70 percent of a hospital’s operating cost, Closson said.

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