North Battleford city council has given its approval to a new collective bargaining agreement with the city’s Community Safety Officers.
Council has authorized the execution of the agreement between the City of North Battleford and the North Battleford Community Safety Officer’s Association unanimously.
An associated Letter of Understanding was accepted unanimously as well, which provides a lump sum of $20,000 to the North Battleford Community Safety Officer’s Association in recognition of startup costs of a certified union.
According to director of human resources Trish McConnell, the negotiation process began in November 2017 and it normally takes 18 to 24 months to negotiate.
The deal is a three-year agreement for the period Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2020. Included are annual salary increases of two per cent in 2018, 1.75 per cent in 2019 and 1.5 per cent for 2020. Those take effect as of Sept. 9, 2019.
A signing ceremony will be set up at City Hall at a future date.
While a deal is done with the CSO union, the city is far from finished with labour negotiations.
McConnell said administration has just received the notice to bargain from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and so they will be “right back at it again” with collective bargaining with that union.
The collective agreement with CUPE expires Dec. 31. McConnell indicated the city hopes to set up dates in the next 60 to 80 days for those talks.
