Agreement reached with NSGEU

An agreement has been reached between Dalhousie and NSGEU Local 77, following the conclusion of conciliation meetings last week.

The agreement rolls over the current collective agreement for one year, with a one per cent increase effective July 1, 2010 and retroactive pay on overtime to July 1, 2010. It also contains items related to sick leave, recall and redeployment.

According to the NSGEU media release, 91 per cent of the 432 votes cast supported the agreement. Local 77 membership includes clerical, secretarial and technical workers at Dalhousie.

“This agreement acknowledges our progress to date and lets us continue onwards in this process,” explains Katherine Sheehan, assistant vice-president Human Resources at Dalhousie. “In doing so, it gets several issues decided and ‘off the table’ and allows us to focus on what’s remaining.”

The agreement does not include any new decisions related to the university pension plan governance. Ms. Sheehan continues to be confident that a side table with all employee groups, as the university has proposed, will lead to an arrangement that keeps Dal’s pension plan sustainable.

“Our priority continues to be to work with our employee groups to come up with a pension governance model that ensures a sustainable and well-supported defined benefit pension plan,” she says.

With this “rollover” agreement reached, collective bargaining will now resume to fully renew the NSGEU collective agreement. Negotiations are being scheduled for September.

Those with questions or concerns are free to contact Heather Williamson at 494-5186 or heather.williamson@dal.ca, or read more at the Human Resources blog.