Retroactive wage hikes part of agreement: Union
United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) Local 500 members working at Rona in Terrebonne, Que., ratified a new six-year collective agreement July 17 that provides wage increases and new full-time positions.
Under the new contract, members will receive a 1.75 per cent wage increase after completing 1,040 hours of work. Workers at the bottom of the wage scale will see increases of $0.10 and $0.35 per hour whenever the minimum wage is raised, depending on the employee’s wage rate. Workers at the top end of the wage scale will receive wage increases of 1.5 per cent retroactive to Dec. 1, 2016, 1.5 per cent for 2017 and 2018 and 1.75 per cent in 2019 through to 2022, according to the union.
Other highlights of the agreement include the abolishment of most part-time positions and the creation of four new regular-salaried positions that provide 30 to 40 hours per week. This means the majority of employees whose positions were previously part-time will now have access to a regular salaried position, said the UFCW.
The agreement also contains enhancements in regard to overtime, whereby employees will be able to choose compensatory paid time off equivalent to the number of overtime hours worked, plus 50 per cent, instead of receiving overtime pay. In addition, the agreement introduces a banked hours mechanism to take time off for vacation, occupational illness or injury, union leave, preventive withdrawal, maternity, paternity or parental leave, personal leave, and holidays, said the union.
As well, the contract adds 16, 32, and 40 hours of available annual sick leave depending on the status of the employee.
“This agreement is one of the many negotiations we have undertaken with Lowes, the new owner of the Rona banner stores, and it will play a decisive role in establishing working conditions throughout the hardware sector, both because of the exemplary way in which negotiations were conducted and because of the excellent results that we obtained,” said Antonio Filato, president of UFCW Canada Local 500.
