Transit deal to boost driver wages by $3.28

A settlement between the city and its transit workers is up for approval at City Hall, on Monday.

Councillors will review the details of a settlement reached recently between the city’s 107 drivers and garage staff.

Earlier this week, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1320 voted 80.7 per cent in favour of the new contract in a secret ballot referendum. Now councillors have to approve the deal before it can be finalized.

The new contract covers a six-year period from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2023. It took 13 days of negotiations to arrive at the settlement; talks ended on Oct. 24.

The contract includes yearly pay increases of just over one per cent annually. (On July 1, 2017, a driver earns $27.73 an hour, for example – by July 1, 2022, that rate will be $31.01.)

Drivers will also get a raise on Dec. 31, 2017: their pay will go from $27.73 an hour to $28.20.

The union purchased that increase by dispensing with a Sunday premium: drivers have been getting 1.25 times their usual pay rate for every hour worked on a Sunday, costing the city $105,000 annually.

The contract also includes modest improvements in health benefits, such as vision care (coverage will be increased to $600 effective July 1, 2020 and $650 effective July 1, 2022).

The city and the transit union had been negotiating since spring. The union was in a legal strike position as of Oct. 29.

Councillors will vote on the matter Monday evening at the committee of the whole meeting at City Hall. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.