After almost three months on strike, workers at Many Rivers Counselling and Support Services will sink their teeth today into a tentative agreement reached with management.

Reached by the Star this morning, Steve Geick, the president of the Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU), said the membership was scheduled to start taking a look at the agreement as early as 10 a.m. today.

The union represents the workers.

As soon as that review is done and they vote on the pact, it could be ratified.

Geick predicted a decision could be made as soon as later this afternoon or tomorrow. A release announcing the tentative pact was issued early this morning.

No more information will be provided until the agreement has been reviewed and voted on to be ratified or rejected, the release added.

The tentative deal comes after the union and some workers held a media briefing Dec. 18 to speak to some of their concerns.

They included more flexibility to schedule themselves, having some of the organization’s leadership be closer to home and not outside the territory, and financial accountability from the board and management.

The impact the strike has been having on its clients was also referenced. One staff member estimated that flexibility would allow members to be prepared and “time for paperwork and spend a few extra minutes with a client who needs it.”

One of the points made at the briefing was also the ask for a 1.5 per cent increase in payscale, which another member said was “not severe.”

During that briefing, members also read from an email from the employer’s negotiator that was sent to the union’s negotiator (not the board itself), but they continued to feel that little progress was being made.

Geick characterized it as a “non-reply” then, as at least one member (all three of whom added they also sit on the bargaining team) said the message to the union did not change.

Meanwhile, the organization is also under investigation by the Yukon government for its status as a society, after it was listed as “in default” on the territory’s corporate registry.

John Streicker, the minister of Community Services, confirmed in December that concerns had been brought to his attention about the group’s status and he had passed them on to the register of societies.

But YG was “not involved in the ongoing labour negotiations between management and staff at Many Rivers,” he wrote in a statement.

The government contributed just over $2 million to Many Rivers in 2018 via an agreement, a similar figure in 2017 and one that sat at $1.9 million in 2016 (as per the group’s annual reports, shown on its webpage).

“Whenever a society is not in compliance,” Streicker wrote, YG “no longer issues payments as part of any funding agreements.”

He confirmed last November that the registrar did not receive financial statements and annual reporting documents as required by July 2018 and the registrar is to help groups come back into compliance.

A department spokesperson, meanwhile, confirmed this morning that the registrar’s investigation is active and a report is expected for around early February.

That will likely determine whether there was any breach and if it will remain listed as “in default,” Bonnie Venton Ross, with the Department of Community Services, wrote today.

“Until the investigation is complete and the findings are reviewed, Many Rivers will continue to be ‘non-compliant’ under the legislation.”

If there have been breaches, the registrar could make orders if it finds the society did not comply with the Societies Act, the regulations or with its bylaws.

Venton Ross added it “will only deal with what is required to bring Many Rivers into compliance with the Societies Act, the regulations, and the society’s bylaws.”

It is estimated there are under 20 members in total impacted by the strike in the Whitehorse, Dawson City, Watson Lake and Haines Junction offices.

Brent Ramsay, Many Rivers’ executive director, has refused to publicly comment on the strike since it began Nov. 2.