Workers receive 5.5 per cent wage increase, prevent back-to-work legislation
Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC) employees have reached a tentative agreement with the provincial government. The deal was reached on Friday and contains a 5.5 per cent wage increase for workers over the three-year deal.
By reaching the agreement, SCIC workers saved themselves from being legislated back to work. Last week, Premier Brad Wall criticized employees for walking off the job, saying that the strike was “nothing short of appalling” during a time of unprecedented flooding of farmland in the province.
Along with the 5.5 per cent wage hike, the deal also contains an additional 0.25 per cent general wage increase in the third year “in consideration of negotiated efficiencies”. An overnight allowance of $25 per night of travel will be introduced in the agreement, as well as a 0.25 percentage point increase in pension contributions from both the employee and the employer.
Employees were asking for a 7.75 per cent pay increase over three years, while the government was offering a 5.5 per cent increase.
The settlement will be retroactive to October 2009, when the crop insurance workers’ previous collective agreement expired.
All employees were expected to be back on the job by today.
