Warning message

Please note that this page is from our archives. There may be more up-to-date content about this topic on our website. Use our search engine to find out.

VICTORIA About 240 library workers in the Greater Victoria Region voted to accept a four-year agreement, giving them wage increases comparable to city workers and modest gains in pay equity.

Under the deal, the workers get 8.5 per cent wage hikes over four years plus some cost of living increases in the last three years and extended health and dental improvements.

The pay equity component means that a branch clerk or circulation clerk, for example, will get the general wage increase plus an equivalent 5.9 per cent pay equity adjustment. Pay equity at the library is based on comparisons to inside workers at Victoria City Hall.

The wage gap between us and other municipal workers doing comparable work continues to be unacceptably large, said Heather Murch, president of CUPE Local 410.

The workers 90 per cent of them female argued throughout this round of negotiations that pay equity is long overdue. But we are advising the members to see it as a beginning on the road to full pay equity, Murch added.

Local 410 members voted 102 to 40 to accept the settlement.

-30-

Contact: Heather Murch, CUPE Local 410 President, 250-475-6100.