TTC workers get 6% wage hike over 3 years: arbitrator

Unionized TTC workers will get a six-per-cent wage increase over the three-year term of their contract, a provincial arbitrator has ruled.

Essential service legislation for the TTC passed by the Ontario government in March 2011 means TTC employees can’t strike and the commission can’t lock out its workers.

“The decision reflects previous agreements reached with other transit properties and their employers. We had hoped and made arguments to the fact that because we’ve been deemed an essential service and our right to strike has been taken away from us that there should be a premium associated with it,” Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 Bob Kinnear told CityNews.

“I think that the TTC and the city were relying on the arbitrator to do their dirty work.”

On Monday, provincially-appointed arbitrator Kevin Burkett issued a decision retroactive to April 1 2011. It includes the two-per-cent per year wage hike over three years and allows the TTC to contract out more of its Wheel-Trans service — up to 62 per cent.

The ruling also includes improvements to benefits and takes away a provision where workers don’t have to provide a medical note if they’re ill for five individual days or less.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the TTC said it plans to recommend the conditions apply to non-unionized workers as well.

The TTC and Local 113 were negotiating until February 2011. Last month, both sides delivered submissions to Burkett for a decision.

Under the essential service law, there will be binding arbitration by a third party when collective bargaining efforts run off the rails. There must also be a review of the legislation in five years.