An arbitrator has given the Nova Scotia government what it wants when it comes to the province's health-care unions and has ruled that it can reduce the number of bargaining units that represent workers in the health-care sector from 50 to four.

Leo Glavine, Nova Scotia's Minister of Health and Wellness, is a fan of the ruling.

"We will have a substantially streamlined labour negotiating process," he said.

Glavine said the reduction in the number of bargaining units will mean the province will spend at least 1,000 fewer hours at the bargaining table.

"I see this as a major step forward," he said.

While James Dorsey, the arbitrator, ruled on the reduction of bargaining units, he postponed a decision on which unions will represent those workers when it comes time for the province's two health authorities to sit down and negotiate new contracts.

The president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union said it's a positive development that the unions have been called upon to get together to represent workers.

"If the processes roll out in the way they are proposed in the decision today, then we will be very pleased," said Joan Jessome.

She argued Dorsey's decision means health-care workers can stay with their existing unions. However, that is not clear in the report.

Charter arguments rejected

The governing Liberals plan to merge the existing nine district health authorities to one by April 1. The IWK Health Centre will continue to exist as its own authority.

Under legislation passed in the fall, there will be four separate unions for nurses, licensed practical nurses, support staff including cleaning and cooks, clerical staff and health-care workers such as lab technologists and porters.

Some of the unions had argued the proposed structure was unconstitutional because it denied freedom of association provisions of the charter, but Dorsey rejected those arguments.

That was the clearest point in Dorsey's nearly 200-page decision, released on Monday morning.

Dorsey also suggested the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union represent nurses and left the door open for the province to allow licensed practical nurses to choose whether to be represented by the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union or by the union that will represent other health-care workers.

Glavine has already rejected that idea.

Heated protests

The largest union, the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union, is challenging the process in court. It wants people to vote on union representation.

Last fall, the province passed legislation that will consolidate nine health authorities into one and ordered the assignment of 24,000 nurses and staff into one of four unions — amid heated protests by many.

The unions include the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union with 11,867 members, the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union with 5,028 members, the Canadian Union of Public Employees with 4,653 members and Unifor with 2,289 workers.

The provincial legislation allows each of the four unions to represent only one class of workers, a requirement that could strip the NSGEU — the largest union with 40 per cent of the province's nurses — of 9,000 of its members.