Although many members of the City of Guelph workforce have found themselves laid off as a result of the pandemic, when the members of three public unions return to work they will at least be doing so with a new agreement. Three Canadian Union of Public Employees locals that represent City of Guelph staff have approved a deal reached between them and the City at the end of last month.

“Reaching an agreement that values the work our employees do every day, without any disruption to City services and programs, is always our collective goal,” said Corporate Services DCAO Trevor Lee in a statement. “This year in particular given the COVID-19 added challenges, I’d like to thank the bargaining team members who worked collectively to ensure we could continue to safely deliver efficient services and quality programs to our community.”

The full agreement has not yet been released, but the City has said that the three unions will be receiving a 1.75 per cent pay increase for 2020, and another 1.75 per cent increase for 2021. The increase for 2020 has apparently already accounted for in the approved 2020 operating budget last December.

The agreements will take effect immediately, but city council itself has yet to ratify the agreement though they did discuss the tentative deal in a closed session of council on May 25.

These three CUPE locals are 973 who represents office employees, CUPE 241 who represents outside staff, and CUPE 1946 who represents library employees; the three have been working without a contract since January 31.