AUPE members ratify new contract with Town of Ponoka
PONOKA – Members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees who work for the Town of Ponoka voted Wednesday evening to ratify a new collective agreement that includes across-the-board pay increases of more than nine per cent over three years.
In addition to basic pay increases of three per cent in each year of the three-year collective agreement, more than half the town employees will receive market adjustments of two per cent in the first year, which will increase their pay more than 11 per cent over the life of the contract, said AUPE Staff Negotiator Steve Nimchuk.
The approximately 60 members of AUPE Local 118/004 will also have a dental plan in their agreement for the first time, Nimchuk said.
The agreement includes many other improvements, Nimchuk said, including an increase in shift differential pay to $1 per hour and an increase in the number of employees eligible for shift differential pay.
“The increase to the shift differential is going to be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005,” he said.
The agreement also includes a new formula for cost-sharing of employee benefits – raising the employer’s portion to 60 per cent from 50 per cent.
The agreement runs from Jan. 1, 2005, to until Dec. 31, 2007
Ponoka Town Council ratified the agreement on April 26.
For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-330 or 780-232-8392 (cellular phone)
Steve Nimchuk, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-930-3341 or 780-919-4831 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)