The City of Estevan has agreed to a new three-year deal with the members of the Estevan Police Association.
The two sides agreed to the deal in principle earlier this month and it was ratified last week after a vote by EPA members, who have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2012. The deal includes a four per cent raise for officers in the first year and 3.5 per cent in the second and third years.
"It was an excellent set of negotiations, very professional and things moved very quickly," said Mayor Roy Ludwig, who thanked the various representatives from both groups for their work in securing a deal.
EPA president Jay Pierson echoed Ludwig's comments, adding that he has been involved in five different negotiations and each one has progressively gotten more respectful and positive.
"Both sides listened to the other side, we discussed several proposals from both sides and in the end we came to a negotiated agreement that I think is beneficial to both sides," said Pierson, who added the contract was largely hammered out over two days.
"When I started we had little two-hour meetings here and there, and there was never any flow. In the last few rounds we have committed to sitting down for several hours and working towards a quick process and a process, again, that I think benefits both sides."
The completion of the deal means the City now has a contract in place with its two major unions. Earlier this year they agreed to a contract with the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 726 on a three-year deal that included similar wage increases.
As was the case with the CUPE contract, Ludwig said the raises for the EPA members were in a range that council was comfortable with.
"This was something that council had talked about for some time," he said. "We have to keep Estevan an attractive place (for employees). We are not going to hide the fact that costs are high in Estevan and to have proper retention and recruitment we have to pay a fair wage. In Estevan, that was the benchmark we felt that we had to go to to continue with our recruitment and retention efforts."
Pierson noted that the cost of living is also a major concern to the association, as their officers want to live in the community and put down roots but aren't always able to.
"In 2013, we've hired several new members, one of whom moved here from another town where oil was a factor, but he still found that he wasn't able to purchase a house he was looking for in Estevan, therefore he is living in Midale," Pierson said. "The focus of negotiations is to allow our members, our police officers, to be part of the community. They are not just policing the community, they are part of the community and to do that we have to live and be active in the community. So housing was certainly an issue."
On the topic of manpower, Ludwig said the Estevan Police Service is in a good position at the moment as they only have one open position that they are working to fill.
"We feel pretty comfortable at this time that we are close to where we want to be. Having said that, we are always pressuring the province to try and get them to help fund more people because it is a huge cost when you look at manpower requirements, so we always try to get the province to come to the table.
"I feel pretty comfortable and very happy that our police are doing a fantastic job."
