Unionized employees at LifeLabs have voted to ratify a three-year collective agreement.
The B.C. General Employees Union, which represents 1,550 LifeLabs employees at 94 company locations, said the deal includes wage improvements with average increases of 12% over three years and a $1,250 signing bonus for all active employees.
“This represents a strong advance toward closing the wage gap with those doing similar work in the public sector and achieving the goal of winning a larger percentage increase for the lowest wage earners,” said a union statement.
Workers will also have an improved indexed pension plan, increases to extended health coverage, improvements to sick-leave entitlement and health and safety policies, as well as stronger workload language to deal with under-staffing issues, the union said
The new agreement is effective April 1 to March 31, 2024.
“After so many months of hard work in negotiations, we are pleased to see members ratify a deal that values and respects their expertise, their contributions during the pandemic and their goal to better serve the public,” said BCGEU president Stephanie Smith.
