After several days of bargaining with the NRC, the TO Bargaining Team reached agreement on a wide variety of issues. With respect to pay, duration, hours, and the Research Deployment Allowance, the NRC put a final offer on the table. Your Bargaining Team felt that it had an obligation to bring this offer forward to all TO members. As such, all TO members will shortly be receiving a ratification package that will outline the proposed changes to the collective agreement.
These changes include:
- Effective Feb. 14, 2005 – increase all rates of pay by 0.306%
- Effective April 1, 2005 – increase all rates of pay by 2.4%
- Effective April 1, 2006 – increase all rates of pay by 2.5%
The new agreement would expire March 31, 2007.
All leave entitlements that are now expressed in days would be changed to hours, with the exception of bereavement leave. This conversion would be done on the basis that one day equals 7.5 hours. This change will primarily affect those members who are working a compressed work week in relation to volunteer, personal, family related responsibility, and medical appointments for pregnant employees leave.
The IAR Research Deployment Allowance will now be applied to all TOs that meet the qualifying periods. Despite all our best efforts, we were unable to achieve reductions in these periods.
There are many other changes, some of which are improvements and others that can be viewed as concessions sought by NRC. These will be explained in detail in the ratification package. The Bargaining Team does not recommend either that the agreement be accepted or rejected. All members are encouraged to review the package carefully and to vote according to their own wishes.