SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City employees will see a seven per cent wage and benefit increases over the next three years as city council unanimously ratified a new contract with the Public Service Alliance of Canada/Union of Northern Workers, Monday.
The contract, which covers the term of Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2015 gives workers a two per cent increase this year, two per cent next year, and three per cent in the final year.
“I think it is basically a cost of living increase,” said Heyck of the agreement. “We have had to be cognizant of where the city lies in the labour market in trying to compete for our labour force with other orders of government.
“I think (negotiations) went fairly smooth.”
Acting senior administrative officer Dennis Kefalas agreed, saying the increases are lower than those offered in the previous contract, which offered five per cent over two years.
“That is slightly less than what we have had in the past,” he said. “This time we were trying to catch up with what was going on with other levels of government. We are still below them, but even with the territorial government, it is pretty close to the same (rate) over the next three years.”
There are currently 170 city employees affected by the agreement. An additional 30 to 40 seasonal employees are among those added in the summer will also fall under the contract, according to the city.
The deal does not include the firefighters and municipal enforcement officers, who are under separate union agreements. Management and council traditionally receives pay increases in line with what unionized workers receive. Closed door negotiations with management took place this week.
Council sets a mandated dollar figure anticipating salary and benefit increases in its budget, which are typically higher than what it is typically spent, said Kefalas. The city approved $20.4 million for wages and benefits for 2013, which represents just under a third of the entire $74.6 million budget.
“Our budget is based on (council's) mandate so we try to take everything into account when we plan for the following year,” explained Kefalas.
“If we settle underneath that budget, then we save money going into the following year. So there won't be any impact on the budget because the budget is already accounted for in the mandate set by council.”
Kefalas said because council approved the 2013 budget without a property tax increase, it was important that any increase agreed to during negotiations be modest compared to past years.
“People understand that in this economy there isn't going to be significant raises by any means,” he said. “And the whole idea is trying to help us to look for ways to keep costs down.
“Overall generally, we can't expect a major increase when we have a zero per cent property tax increase.”
Retention can sometimes be a challenge for the municipality, Kefalas said, as positions like skilled positions, lifeguards and firefighters can be a challenge to recruit and keep filled.
“We also find we have a better track record when we recruit locally,” he said. “If we can retain a higher amount of people from Yellowknife, chances are they will stay longer.”
Council was largely tight-lipped about the contract, although Coun. Niels Konge said he was pleased with the outcome.
“I can tell you (the agreement) is within the mandate that we gave administration and I think administration did a good job negotiating for us,” he said.
Coun. Rebecca Alty was also impressed and thought the negotiations met the targets set by council.
“You want to compensate your employees well and fairly so that you can keep them around for a long time,” said Alty. “If we are well below other municipalities or other industries in town, then it is going to be a revolving door.
“We gave what we thought the mandate should be in November and looking at the numbers, the municipality was going to catch up with the GNWT's pay. Because for quite a few years it was well below and you constantly just feed into the GNWT.”
Coun. Linda Bussey said she was also satisfied with the outcome.
“Negotiations seemed to have gone readily well,” said Bussey. “There was no upheaval and nothing came out of it. There wasn't any press around it.”
Officials with the Public Service Alliance of Canada could not be reached for comment by press time.
