Municipal employees who work at St. Albert’s RCMP detachment will get a three-per-cent pay increase under a new collective agreement with the city.
The 32 employees covered by the deal will see a general wage increase of 2.5 per cent, retroactive to Jan. 1, and a further one per cent as of July 1. Some positions will also qualify for market adjustments. In total, these increases mean an increase of slightly more than three per cent for the year, said City of St. Albert human resources director Doug Gairns.
The agreement applies to municipal enforcement officers, 911 telecommunications staff and administrative support workers. It became official Monday when it was approved by city council.
The pay increases will cost the city about $85,000 in 2011, Gairns said.
Negotiations began last October and went until June. That’s when a mediator became involved.
“At the end, we got down to the dollar increases, the money basically and we found that we couldn’t come up with an agreement that both of our principals would agree to,” Gairns said.
The agreement mirrors one reached with public works employees in March. That deal provided an increase of one per cent Jan. 1, then 2.5 per cent in July.
“I’m pleased that we were able to take something back to our principals that was approved,” Gairns said.
With this one-year deal now concluded, the two sides will head right back to the bargaining table next month to start the next round of negotiations, Gairns said.
The city has one outstanding union contract to resolve. It’s currently in talks with the union that represents city firefighters, Gairns said.
Earlier this year, the city awarded its non-unionized employees with a one per cent cost-of-living increase. That raise took into consideration cost-of -living statistics for the Capital region and settlements within other municipalities in the region and mid-sized Alberta municipalities. In 2010, the Consumer Price Index for the Edmonton area was 1.07 per cent.
