opseuA new contract for about 800 provincial employees in the North Bay area.

This after ratification votes were held across the province this week.

Members of the Ontario Public Service Central division has voted 67 per cent in favour of a tentative agreement recently reached between OPSEU and the Ontario government, while the Unified division has approved it by 78 per cent.

The new three-year contract runs through December 31st, 2017.

Highlights include:

  • a 1.4 per cent lump sum award in 2016
  • a 1.4 per cent wage increase in 2017
  • rejection of a three-tiered (80, 50 and 20 per cent) drug reimbursement plan
  • rejection of a 12-step salary grid
  • rejection of a five per cent lower starting wage for OPSEU-represented positions
  • insertion of key anti-privatization language for enhanced job security
  • extension of the cap on termination pay to December 31, 2016

In a release, Central/Unified Chair Roxanne Barnes said while pleased that the tentative deal had been ratified, the relatively narrow margins were cause for concern. “The team had to fight tooth and nail to defeat the most devastating concessions demanded by the government, while helping to offset the cost of inflation, which continues to take its toll on real wages. Members’ lukewarm response is an indictment of this government, which for months refused to bargain in good faith.”

 

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas shared Barnes’ ambivalence about the results. “Our members have ratified the agreement, but they’ve lost all trust in a government that has no respect for OPS employees or the valuable work they do.”

Meantime, the Corrections bargaining team is set to resume negotiations on November 7 and 8.