Nova Scotias health minister fired an arbitrator Friday and said he plans to introduce legislation to finish the job.

Leo Glavine said Jim Dorsey, who delivered his report Friday, failed to complete his work by not assigning bargaining units to each of the provinces four health-care unions. The Health Authorities Act, which merges the district health authorities into one board, also narrows the labour field to four bargaining units: clerical, health-care, nursing and support.

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Dorsey assigned the health-care bargaining unit to the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union and suggested the NSGEU would also get the clerical unit following a pending union merger. But he did not assign the nursing or support units because he said no union had a clear majority of workers.

A government regulation that gave the Nova Scotia Nurses Union a majority for nursing was thrown out in the report. Dorsey said he would return in April to address nursing and support, but Glavine said he wont get the chance.

We need to finish the work, the minister said. We know that arbitration brings final decisions ... We clearly asked Mr. Dorsey paid him well to arbitrate. He hasnt done that.

Glavine said the Health Authorities Act was clear that each of the four unions was to be assigned a bargaining unit. To date, Dorseys tab stands at $200,000 and Glavine said cabinet would determine if he would receive the full amount.

This report does not give us clarity on important questions and it does not respect the Health Authorities Act.

Cabinet will also discuss whether to recall the House early to pass new legislation in time for April 1, when the new provincial health board becomes operational.

NSGEU president Joan Jessome, who earlier in the day heralded Dorseys ruling as a victory for workers rights, said she was shocked by Glavines decision to dictate which union would represent which workers.

Read more from the original source:

Liberals fire health-care union arbitrator, promise legislation