The City of Victoria and its largest union have reached a new four-year collective agreement.
The deal with CUPE Local 50, which represents 850 city employees, is retroactive to Jan. 1. It includes wage increases of 1.5 per cent in the first year and two per cent in each of the following three years.
There are also improvements in pay and benefits specific to auxiliary workers, and new provisions that will see the city and the union partner with local educational and trades training institutions to support co-op work placements and apprenticeships.
In a statement, the city and union say the wage increases are similar to settlements reached in jurisdictions such as White Rock, Squamish, Vancouver and the Comox Valley Regional District.
The agreement is the first independently negotiated collective agreement between the city and CUPE in more than 40 years.
Previously, the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association, which bargains on behalf of several public-sector employers in the capital region, negotiated for the city. The city decided last year to leave the association.
Union president John Burrows said bargaining went smoothly and that the new agreement was reached over four or five bargaining sessions. “I can only hope it sets a template for the remainder of the region, who are all waiting to get to the bargaining table with the GVLRA,” Burrows said.
Mayor Lisa Helps called the four-year deal “unprecedented” and thanked both management and the union for their work in reaching the agreement.
