MOOSE JAW — CUPE Local 9 workers with the City of Moose Jaw have a new collective agreement after nearly three years without one, with the contract increasing their pay by 7.5 per cent.
During its Feb. 24 personnel committee meeting, city council voted to ratify the terms of the collective agreement with the union as laid out in a memorandum of agreement (MOA). Furthermore, council authorized the mayor and city clerk to sign the agreement, while the money will come from salary reserves in the 2025 operating budget.
Council received those meeting minutes during its March 10 regular meeting and voted unanimously to accept that document.
The new agreement commences Jan. 1, 2023 and ends on Dec. 31, 2026.
City hall still considers the contract a tentative one, as both sides are working on completing changes to the agreement. It plans to share the full contract details and have an official signing once all updates are finalized.
Based on information from the personnel committee meeting report, the MOA — which the two parties signed on Feb. 20 — constitutes “full and final settlement of all outstanding matters concerning negotiations to review and renew the collective bargaining agreement, which expired on Dec. 31, 2022.”
The general wage increases show that CUPE workers will receive two per cent more as of Jan. 1, 2023, three per cent more as of Jan. 1, 2024, 1.5 per cent more as of Jan. 1, 2025, and one per cent more as of July 1, 2025.
Furthermore, retroactive pay will occur for current employees as of the ratification date, while employees who retired or died on or after Jan. 1, 2023 will also receive back pay, the document said.
Meanwhile, with implementing a new wage schedule, the schedule will occur on Jan. 1, 2026, as per the joint job evaluation. This means employees will be advanced to the next step in the updated wage schedule that is higher than their current step position.
Also, employees whose wage rate exceeds the maximum of their new range shall maintain their current pay rate, while they will not be eligible for future increases until they are within their wage range, the report said.
Two new wage grids will commence on Jan. 1, 2026, with one for recreation employees and a second for all other employees. Each grid contains pay scales for 13 job groups, while there are five total pay steps, starting at minimum pay and going up to maximum pay.
For example, in the non-recreation grid, job group one’s minimum pay is $18.45 per hour, while its maximum pay is $20 per hour. Furthermore, job group eight’s minimum pay is $27.52 per hour and its maximum pay is $33.12 per hour.
Also, job group 13’s minimum pay is $34.23 per hour and the maximum pay is $41.18 per hour.
Several new sections have been added to the MOU, including hours of work for certain employee groups, earned days off (EDOs) and non-permanent casual, while most other sections have either been eliminated or updated.
Both parties also agreed to implement a new joint job evaluation framework effective Jan. 1, 2026.
The framework says existing permanent employees who have completed a merit review and been placed at the maximum salary step before that date, and are subsequently placed in a salary step below the maximum when the evaluation is implemented, are not required to complete another merit review when they become eligible on the new wage scale.
However, this stipulation applies only to the position and duties for which the merit review was conducted, while if employees move to a different job, they will be required to complete another merit review, the document added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, March 24.
