After two days of meditation with Labour Relations Board mediator Grant MacArthur, the City of Kimberley and the United Steelworks (USW) Local I-405 failed to come to a collective agreement.

As a result, the USW yesterday stated a labour dispute between the two parties in now an eventuality.

The city this afternoon reported that it has has applied to the Labour Relations Board for essential services designation in the event of a labour disruption.

“When the board designates services as essential, the city is required to provide those services and the union is required to allow its members to perform those services in the event of a strike or lockout,” a city press release related.

“Despite the union’s assertion that the employer did not change their position through the mediation process, the city withdrew their demand for new hours of work and was also willing to grandfather special vacation benefits, so that workers currently entitled to this benefit will not lose any vacation. The special vacation benefit consists of an extra 15 days of vacation for every five years of service, on top of the annual vacation entitlements. Special vacation was first bargained into the contract in 1981, when the city was competing with Cominco for workers. Extending this benefit to new workers is not financially sustainable for the city in the long-term,” the city news release explained.

There are many issues with the current job evaluation system, which has been in place since 2009, the city pointed out.

“One of the issues that has arisen with this job evaluation system is that departments are competing with each other over a finite amount of wage increases, with some departments better represented than others. Some departments have received wages that are out of touch with comparisons with wages in similar-sized municipalities.

“The union is also demanding that both the special vacation and job evaluation system be extended to the Aquatic Centre staff. This will further increase the cost of operating the Aquatic Centre, which is contrary to council’s recent efforts to reduce operational costs,” the city stated.

A total of $700,761 (73%) of the $957,358 in this year’s Aquatic Centre budget is related to wages and benefits.

The city has offered a four per cent increase over four years to existing wages (based upon the current job evaluation system). The union has demanded 3.5% per year for the next three years, the city said.

“In order to reflect competitive market realities and to attract and retain employees, the city has offered additional wage increases to three positions key to driving revenues from new construction and to planning infrastructure renewal.”

Council’s mandate for the negotiating team is to provide long-term viability for the city, reversing a trend of ever-increasing labour costs and declining investment in city infrastructure.

The city remains committed to negotiating a mutually acceptable agreement that strikes a balance between our taxpayers’ ability to pay and a fair offer to our valued workforce, it concluded.

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