Pay hike for city workers

The City of Regina is budgeting $7 million more in 2015 for salaries and benefits due in part to a handful of collective agreements that the city hopes will give it a competitive edge.

“The reality is that if we want to provide quality services, we need to make sure that we’re attracting and retaining good quality employees,” said city manager Glen Davies.

“And I want to emphasize the retention, because if you have a workforce that’s constantly in turmoil coming and going with new employees, it always has a negative impact on the consistency of service delivery.”

The five per cent increase in the city’s salaries and benefits budget over 2014 means $152.5 million is forecasted to be spent in this area this year — the largest category of expenditure at city hall. That’s not just due to collective agreements, explained Davies, but also promotions and increases in benefits.

“I think it’s what I would refer to as a reasonable investment in making sure that we can deliver the services that citizens expect,” said Davies.

Meanwhile, the city has tried to keep staffing level hikes to a minimum, adding only about 19 full-time equivalent positions in 2015.

On Monday, city council will consider whether to approve two three per cent salary increases for 2015: one for the Regina Civic Middle Management Union (CMM), representing about 300 workers, and one for the city’s 190 out-of-scope employees.

In addition to the three per cent wage increase in 2015, CMM union members will get two per cent bumps in 2016 and 2017 and a $1,000 signing bonus. The agreement will cost the city $4.48 million over three years.

The Regina Civic Middle Management Association declined to comment on the agreement.

Out-of-scope employees, who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, tend to get similar wage increases as those negotiated by city employee unions. This year’s three per cent increase will cost the city $603,800.

Davies called balancing fiscal responsibility and wage increases “probably more art than it is science.” He said the handful of collective agreements the city has signed over the past year are in keeping with ones elsewhere in the province and in line with market trends.

The city is facing a looming retirement wave (onethird of employees will be eligible to retire in the next six years and 10 per cent could leave today) and challenges recruiting new workers in the face of a hot economy.

“I think the market is perhaps not favourable to the employer at this point, but I think we have less pressure on attracting and retaining people than we have in the past,” said Davies of a market he sees as “levelling off.”

For Davies, though, the wage increases are not so much a deal-breaker as finding a solution for the civic pension plan issue, which is currently before the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority superintendent.