🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep24.154244.19157@unixg.ubc.ca> daniel@redwood.ppc.ubc.ca (Daniel Ouellet) writes:
>In article <1992Sep24.015509.4243@mikejag.wimsey.bc.ca>, brent@mikejag.wimsey.bc.ca (Brent Kennedy) writes:
>|> 
>|>  Please realize that this is exactly what the government is presently
>|> doing to physicians.  Last year the 'claw-back'  was approx.  $5000 per
>|> physician.  How would you like your employer to ask for part of your salary
>|> back at the end of the year??
>
>On the other hand, why would you expect your employer not to have a say on your salary ?

Well there are several problems with this argument.  First, doctors are
suppose to be self employed, for the most part, in this country.  There are
those that are on salary to a hospital or clinic, but most are self employed
on a fee for service basis.  As many people have compared, this has some   
similarities to the present system with ICBC.  The body shops are not
"employees" of the government, but simply recieve payments from an insurance
company that happens to be run by the government.  Secondly, and by far more
important, you have missed a major part of the point of this problem if you
think the docotors are arguing that the government should have no say in their
salary.  You are paid a definite amount of money. Your employer has no right
to take money away from you at the end of the year because the employess
worked too many hours.  Does ICBC simply stop paying body shops at the end of
the year because there are too many claims??  No, they just raise all of our
premiums.  Is Medicare more important than ICBC??  I certainly thought it was.
The doctors asked for a third party binding arbitration settlement, and the
government refused.  How can you refuse third party arbitration??  This gives
both parties a say in the settlement.  On top of that you have a government
that took a legally negotiated pension plan and simply declared it
non-existent.  No they didn't simply tear up the agreement, they actually
brought in a piece of the most fould legislation to ever cross the floor of
the legislature.  This new bill of theirs actually stated that the pension
plan "...is deemed to have never existed."  How can you say something never
existed when thousands of people have copies of the agreement signed by both
parties??  Even the head of hte BC Federation of Labour called it one of the
most disgusting moves a government had ever made.  If it had been tried
against a union there would have been an immediate wild-cat strike.
Of course an employer should have a say in an employees salary, but doctors
are not "employees" of the government.  In addition, having a say in one's
salary, does not mean an employer should be able to take back money that one
has already earned under the agreed upon contract.



-- 
#     Brent Kennedy	      | The disease of "Trauma" is responsible for   #
#                             | more years of potential life lost than any   #
# brent@mikejag.wimsey.bc.ca  | other disease, yet it's also the most        #
#		              | preventable, does that make any sense??      #