Staff leaving for other agencies and higher pay of up to $28,000 more a year

A survey comparing wage rates for B.C. deputy sheriffs with 11 law enforcement agencies shows other peace officers earn significantly higher wages and highlights significant pay gaps that are causing staffing shortages that are impacting the operation of B.C.'s court and corrections systems.

"The results confirm that sheriffs are the lowest paid law enforcement personnel in B.C.," says George Heyman, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union, which prepared the survey.

"Pay rates up to 40 per cent higher in other agencies are an incentive for an increasing number of deputy sheriffs to leave the provincial public service to work in much greener pastures elsewhere," he says.

The study compared the current wage rate for B.C. deputy sheriffs-which is $26.31 per hour - with equivalent staff in other agencies. It found huge pay discrepancies including:

• Greater Vancouver Transit Police constables earn $10.27 an hour more than sheriffs, or 39 per cent;
• Vancouver City Police 1st class constables with four years of service make $9.57 an hour more, or 36 per cent;
• RCMP constables with three years of service pull down 32 per cent more, or $8.36;
• Ontario Corrections bailiff (part time) earns $29.75 per hour or 13 per cent more; and
• An Abbotsford municipal traffic enforcement officer makes an additional $2.29 an hour, or nine per cent more than a deputy sheriff.

Meanwhile, equivalent deputy sheriff positions in Alberta will soon earn $31.52 per hour, or 20 per cent more than their counterparts in B.C. Current wage rates for Canada Border Services officers are $2.27 per hour - or nine per cent-higher. But the gap is expected to rise significantly when new rates are set in bargaining retroactive to 2007. Special provincial constables who provide basic security services at the Legislature in Victoria and who are unarmed earn about $0.60 per hour more than sheriffs.

B.C. deputy sheriffs are armed and transport prisoners from correctional facilities to courts and maintain safety and security in provincial courtrooms across the province. There are 440 of them province wide. In 2007, 57 deputies left the B.C. Sheriffs Services. So far this year, 14 have left.

For backgrounder with all the comparisons, click here.

The survey is based on current salary levels for the top pay rate in the most common equivalent classification.

Heyman says BCGEU - which represents deputy sheriffs and corrections officers - has been pressing the Campbell government to use an existing collective agreement provision to negotiate special pay adjustments to solve staffing shortages and deal with significant recruitment and retention pressures. But so far, Victoria has rebuffed the union's efforts.

On an annual basis, B.C. sheriffs earn $48,055, while transit constables pull down $76,104 - a difference of $28,000 a year. Other annualized comparisons that highlight the huge wage gap include Saanich police constables, $24,569 more per year; federal corrections staff, almost $22,000 more; and Delta police constables who earn $21,700 more.

Later this month, Heyman says that the union will release a similar study comparing pay rates for B.C. corrections officers with their counterparts across the country.

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Media, please contact Stephen Howard, communications officer

For a PDF version of this release, click here.

For a PDF version of the accompanying backgrounder, click here.