After six years without a contract, the London Professional Fire Fighters Association has ratified a collective agreement with the city.
The agreement was finalized Friday night at a meeting between the two sides. The deal is a nine-year agreement, retroactive to January 1, 2011 and extending to December 31, 2019.
Some of the highlights of the new agreement include;
- Exclusion of platoon chiefs from the bargaining unit.
- Contracting out provisions for certain work.
- Reduction in overtime benefits for some employees.
- Average annual increase of 2.4 per cent for each of the nine years.
All of the changes specified in the agreement will take effect in 30 days.
The President of the London Professional Fire Fighter Association, Jason Timlick, said that the deal is one which works for everybody.
“There is concessions, breakthroughs on both sides which reflects a made in London. A deal that both parties can walk away feeling good that it’s a deal [for] my members and their families, it improves their wages, benefits, and working conditions, and is good for the taxpayer of London so I’m very pleased.”
Mayor Matt Brown weighed in on the newly signed collective agreement as well.
“We are pleased to have a made-in-London, long term collective agreement in place with our firefighters. This agreement provides the Corporation with much needed certainty in a changing landscape of police and fire settlements and provides wage and benefit improvements for our firefighters.”
The mayor went on to thank staff who have been working on the deal since 2012.