Public sector unions to get salary hikes, later retirement in new deal

A coalition of Quebec public sector unionsrevealed today the details of the agreement-in-principle it struck with the provincial government earlier this week.

The agreement ensures salary increases of 9.1 to 10.3 per cent over five years, and retirement age has been raised to 61 from 60.

The common front of unions, which represents400,000 public-sector employees,confirmed these numbers during apress conference on Sunday.

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The tentativedeal was struck last Thursday after a 13-hour negotiation blitzbetween Treasury Board President Martin Coiteux and unions leaders.

Teachers, healthcare professionals and civil servants held rotating walkouts for months to protest lagging contractstalkswith Quebec.

Jean Lortie, Secretary General of the CSN, which represents more than 160,000 public sector employees, said the agreement is a "good deal" for public employees.

"For the first time in decades, the public sector unions reached a settlement with the government without a decree, without back to work legislation. It was a true process of negotiation," he said.

Union leaders attributed the successful talks to the rotating strikes and what they said was strongpublic support for their demands.

Salary increases and a change to retirement age

The two sides started off "light years"apart, with unions demanding a 13.5 per cent pay increase over three years. The government proposed a three per cent increase over fiveyears.

Under the new deal, the salary increases could amount to as much as 10.25 per cent, with including premiums such as night shifts and high-risk work.

The base salary increase is 9.1 per cent across the board.

Details of the tentative deal include:

• 2015: A lump-sum increase of 1 per cent
• 2016: 1.5 per cent increase
• 2017: 1.75 per cent increase
• 2018: 2 per centincrease

In 2019, most public sector workers would see an additional increase as high as 2.4 per centbased on adjustments tosalary-scale inequities.

Thecoalition said those adjustments will seemore than90 per cent of workers get an additionalincrease of at least 2 per cent understarting April 2, 2019.

This week'sagreementwould also raise retirement age from 60 to 61.Quebec initially proposed to push the retirement age to 62.

In a news release, the coalition said the agreement does not spell the end of the unions' fight against government austerity measures.

"We will continue by all means to protectour public services from being dismantled," it said.

The terms of the agreement-in-principle will bepresented to public-sectorunion members for adoptionin the coming weeks.

The resultof those votes should be known in early January.

Thousands still without a deal

Other unions, meanwhile,are still in the midst of negotiations.

TheFdrationautonomedel'enseignement (FAE), which represents 34,000 French-language teachers,is still without an agreement. Talks resumed between Quebec and the group earlier this week but there is no deal yetwhich means that there could be strike days and cancelled school daysin the future.

The Syndicat regroupant l'ensemble des professionnels du gouvernement du Qubec (SPGQ), which represents white collar workers, has also not reached a deal with the government.

Earlier this month, theFdrationinterprofessionnellede lasantduQubec(FIQ), which represents the majority of Quebec nurses, reached a deal concerning work conditions but not salary.