<\/p>\n
Ontario Construction News staff writer<\/p>\n
More than 600 professional engineers and land surveyors who work for the Ontario government are warning that job action launched Tuesday could affect the province’s ability to make progress on key infrastructure construction projects.<\/p>\n
Nihar Bhatt, president of Professional Engineers Government of Ontario, says his members want to see a “significant” increase in pay, though he did not give specific percentages.<\/p>\n
Low wages are creating a recruitment and retention crisis that could lead to delays on government projects including Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, he said.<\/p>\n
PEGO represents engineers responsible for overseeing critical government projects, managing the building code, fire codes, air quality regulations, and overseeing significant highway construction efforts such as bridges and road expansions including the entire 400-series highway network and advising on essential provincial initiatives like the Gardiner Expressway and drinking water standards. They have been without a contract for 20 months.<\/p>\n
During the job action, members will not take on additional responsibilities, such working unpaid overtime and Bhatt says major construction projects could start falling behind schedule in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Delays could impact key projects like Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass\u2014central to the Ford government\u2019s commitments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t our preferred course of action; we want to focus on engineering and building,\u201d Bhatt said.<\/p>\n
This is the first job action for PEGO in the past 35 years.<\/p>\n
Bhatt says the treasury board negotiators don\u2019t seem to understand our concerns.<\/p>\n
A treasury board spokesperson stated that the government\u2019s latest contract proposal is \u201creasonable and reflects the specialized role of PEGO employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next mediation session is scheduled for Oct. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ontario Construction News staff writer More than 600 professional engineers and land surveyors who work for the Ontario government are warning that job action launched Tuesday could affect the province’s ability to make progress on key infrastructure construction projects. Nihar Bhatt, president of Professional Engineers Government of Ontario, says his members want to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community-news","8":"category-current-news"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n