Deal includes improvements to wages, working conditions
Employees at Hibernia — the oil platform off the coast of St. John’s, Newfoundland — voted to accept a new collective agreement with their employer.
The nearly 400 workers, represented by Unifor, accepted the deal by a margin of 58 per cent. Set to expire on June 30, 2019, the new agreement includes improvements to wages, benefits and working conditions for both full-time and temporary employees.
“This was an extremely tough round of bargaining,” said Lana Payne, Atlantic regional director for Unifor. “There is no doubt that we still have some unresolved issues in the workplace, and I can guarantee that the union will be working hard over the term of the agreement to have them resolved.”
According to the union, the new deal includes a lump sum payment of $6,000 for regular employees, pro-rated, as well as a wage increase of 3.5 per cent when the agreement is ratified. Workers will see an additional wage increase of 3.75 per cent on July 1, 2015, and an increase of 3 per cent in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
“These are tough jobs, working in one of the toughest environments in the world, and we are very proud to represent workers in the offshore oil industry,” said Unifor’s assistant to the president Dave Moffat. “We are expecting that this agreement will help bring stability to this complex workplace in the near and long term.”
