1.75% annual raises for CAS staff
After being without a new contract for a year, a four-year settlement reached for OPSEU workers
Employees of the local Children’s Aid Society recently signed a four-year contract, nearly a year after their last contract expired.
About 120 employees of Kawartha Haliburton Children’s Aid Society inked an agreement last week that will take them to March 31, 2021.
Their last contract ended March 31, 2017.
Kawartha Haliburton CAS staff work at offices in Peterborough, Lindsay and Haliburton.
Negotiations for the contract took place for nine days in January and a settlement was reached March 19.
“The tone was very positive between both parties,” said Jennifer McLauchlan, Kawartha Haliburton CAS’s director of corporate services.
Staffers are unionized with Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 334.
Most of the focus during negotiations was monetary, McLauchlan said.
Employees will get a raise of 1.75 per cent each year of the collective agreement that is retroactive to April 1, 2017.
The two parties also made some language changes within the agreement regarding workload processes and job security.
McLauchlan said negotiations went well and both parties were focused on finding a mutually agreeable settlement that met everyone’s needs.
“We really appreciate the work of our employee group and this is a recognition of everybody’s effort to come to this point in our relationship.”