A Canadian union announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement to end the strike of most public sector workers who have been calling for higher salaries and more remote work for 10 days.
This agreement brings to an end one of the largest social movements in Canadian history, which was launched on April 19 by 155,000 employees, equivalent to a third of the country’s public sector employees.
Many services have been affected by this move, including passport and immigration applications.
After nearly two years of negotiations, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has reached preliminary agreements for its 120,000 Treasury Board members, who provide important services to the public, I said in a statement.
The agreement to end the strike applies to thousands of public servants who were due to resume work from Monday at 9:00 (1300 GMT) “with a fair and equitable employment contract beyond what was offered by the employer before the strike began”.
The alliance received wage increases of 12.6% over four years for the period 2021-2024.
The union called for an increase of 13.5% over three years or 4.5% annually to offset inflation, while the government proposed 9% over the same period.
It also got “much better protection compared to working remotely”, and the requests of employees, most of whom are still working entirely virtually since the pandemic, will be evaluated individually.