City of Nanaimo, employees reach deal with pay hikes

The City of Nanaimo has reached a deal with its employees nearly 18 months after the previous contract expired.

The new agreement with CUPE Local 401 calls for wage increases of two per cent in each year of the contract covering 2017 and 2018.

The wage hikes are retroactive to Jan. 1 of each year.

John Van Horne, Nanaimo’s director of human resources, said negotiations were put on hold while the city was dealing with other issues.

Nanaimo has been plagued by conflict between political factions on council and turmoil at the senior staff level.

“There’s been a lot of issues that the city’s been working through,” he said. “There’s a dynamic there that took a lot of human resources time to help work through and, as result, it didn’t allow for getting something as time-consuming as collective bargaining [done].

“We couldn’t do the two things simultaneously and have the necessary time and focus to do it.”

As part of the new deal, the union and city have agreed to set negotiating dates for the next agreement prior to Jan. 18, 2019.

“I give CUPE credit, and the members there as well, for being patient, but at the same time saying, ‘Hey, we do want this resolved,’ ” Van Horne said.

The deal covers about 600 employees working in finance, parks and recreation, bylaw enforcement and other departments. They ratified the agreement Thursday night.

“I think it’s great,” Van Horne said. “It takes a lot of pressure off. There’s still a lot of language issues that the parties need to work through.”

But the deal alleviates concern about the financial elements, he said. “That helps a lot of the staff feel a little more relieved to know that’s taken care of.”

Blaine Gurrie, president of Local 401, was unavailable for comment on Friday.

In a statement, Gurrie said: “Moving forward, we are hopeful that the parties can achieve a renewed agreement in early 2019 that can provide stability to our members as the city looks to retool or reset.”