President Sheldon Levy said Ontario’s two-year public sector wage freeze was a surprise and is unfair to non-unionized employees at Ryerson.

The 2010 Ontario budget proposed legislation that freezes the wages of non-unionized public sector workers in the Ontario Public Service, Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation, hospitals, health boards, other provincial agencies, boards and commissions, and colleges and universities across Ontario.

At Ryerson, this includes senior academic and administrative groups including executives, senior directors, deans and vice-provosts, and employees such as administrative secretaries and others workers who are privy to confidential information.

“What I worry about a lot is the sense of unfairness between those that are in bargaining groups and unionized, versus the non-unionized members,” Levy said.

“I think that every (piece of) legislation has got to be seen as fair to everyone, and not have people who are disadvantaged because they can’t bargain collectively.”

The legislation, the Public Sector Compensation Restraint to Protect Public Services Act, was put into effect the day the budget came out on March 25. It will last until March 31, 2012.

“There are people that are at the higher ends of salaries that you could say should be treated differently, but many of our confidential workers and our colleagues in staff positions are at the same salary levels of bargaining members,” Levy said.

Ontario’s current deficit sits at $21 billion. The budget proposes six more years of deficits with an accumulation of a $100-billion debt.

“What they are obviously doing is trying to create a situation under which they are bringing down the expenses of the system in all parts,” he said. “They’re trying to reduce cost.”

According to Levy, there is no formal legislation for unionized or bargaining employees when the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) contracts run out, but the government is asking that unions work towards a wage freeze for upcoming contracts.

CUPE and OPSEU at Ryerson did not comment by press time, but the OPSEU contract ends in June of this year.

Lesley Salvadori, a steward and membership secretary for OPSEU, said there have been no formal discussions.

“That’s something they’ll discuss (with management) during negotiations,” she said.

Levy said it was too soon to talk about potential strikes because the legislation is still unclear.

Larissa Allen, assistant vice-president of human resources at Ryerson, echoed that the legislation is still very unclear.

“I think nobody really knows anything at the moment,” she said. “It’s all very fuzzy and we’re working hard to get the answers.”

Ryerson and other universities in Ontario are collectively putting together questions to pose to the government and will publish the information when they have it.