Whitehorse Daily Star

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City Manager Linda Rapp

Council endorses employees’ agreement

City council has ratified the new collective agreements with most of the city’s employees.

By Stephanie Waddell on May 1, 2018

City council has ratified the new collective agreements with most of the city’s employees.

Monday evening’s unanimous vote involved transit staff (represented by Local Y022 of the Yukon Employees’ Union) and nearly all other city workers (represented by Local Y023).

The exception is the city’s firefighters.

The proposed deal would provide the union members with a raise of 4.25 per cent over four years, at 1.5 per cent in the first year and one per cent each year after.

The union announced last week that members of both locals had voted to ratify the proposed agreements that had been reached just a few hours before employees had been set to strike on April 16.

The transit union of more than 30 workers had been staging a work-to-rule campaign since March 19.

They had been set to join the 200-plus workers from Y023 in walking off the job at 8 a.m. April 16 if an agreement had not been reached.

At 5:30 a.m., the deal was announced – and the potential strike called off.

In a report that came forward to council last night, city manager Linda Rapp noted: “In an organization that offers the diversity of services that the municipal corporation offers to the citizens of Whitehorse, it is essential that we have a competent, motivated, entrepreneurial group of employees, where every member understands their role and accepts the responsibility to carry it out in the most efficient manner.

“A foundation of our relationship with our employees is providing fair wages and benefits and setting out working conditions that allow us to take advantage of the expertise available to us in our workforce, while at the same time maintaining the flexibility to serve our citizens,” Rapp said in the report.

The proposed settlement falls within the parameters for a new deal set out by council before negotiations began, it was highlighted in the report .

Questioned by Coun. Samson Hartland, Rapp later confirmed the new agreement will not impact taxes.

While council voted to ratify the agreements, there are still a number of steps to take before it’s fully in place.

As it was stated in the report: “The terms and conditions of employment for all employees, including remuneration, benefits, expenses, hours of work, and manner of appointment, promotion, discipline and dismissal, are required to be established by bylaw.

“Ratifying the Memorandums of Settlement is the first step towards putting new collective agreements in place.

“If Council approves the Memorandums of Settlement, the approved changes will be integrated into the agreements. When the revised agreements have been finalized, a bylaw will be brought forward to adopt the new collective agreements.”

Under the current contract, pay scales for employees in both Locals Y022 and Y023 vary by a number of factors, such as level of training, experience and so on.

In Y022, transit workers’ wages range from $27.82 to $35.25 hourly.

Meanwhile, there is a wide range of job classifications and wages for those employees in Y023, representing about 300 other city workers.

Among the 16 categories, most permanent employees earn between $22.85 and $52.73 per hour.

One position (which the city subsidizes) through the Challenge Disability Resource Group pays $12.35 per hour.

Coun. Jocelyn Curteanu was absent from Monday’s meeting.

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