News and current affairs employees at APTN have won a 3.5% salary increase for the final year of their three-year agreement. The award is retroactive to April 25 of this year. The current agreement expires on April 24, 2006.
Arbitrator William Hamiliton, who examined offers from the Canadian Media Guild and APTN management, selected the union’s offer late last week. The Guild proposed an across-the-board increase of 3.5% while APTN management proposed simply creating a ninth step on the salary scales, meaning the only member who would have been eligible for a salary increase was the single employee already in Step 8.
“I agree with the Union that, except for one employee, the Employer’s final offer is, for all intents and purposes, a ?0%’ increase,” Hamilton wrote in his decision, adding that the union’s 3.5% proposal was close to the rate of inflation.
The Guild sent the issue to final offer selection arbitration in June since the two sides were unable to negotiate an increase at the bargaining table. When the collective agreement was first negotiated in 2003, the two sides agreed to wait until the third year to negotiate new salary increases. They also agreed that an arbitrator would be asked to choose between union and management proposals if the union and management could not come to agreement.
For more information, please contact Gerry Whelan (gerry@cmg.ca) at 902-417-6070.