The City of Moose Jaw and CUPE Local 9 has come to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.

The new agreement was approved by city council on Monday night 5-2 with councillors Brian Swanson and Scott McMann opposed.

The agreement will see enhanced benefits and a wage settlement of 1.25 per cent for 2019, 1.5 per cent for 2020, 1.5 per cent for 2021 and 1.75 per cent for 2022.

A number of changes were negotiated including the phasing out of the student rate of pay effective Dec. 31, 2022. While there were no costs in 2019 and 2020 due to the pandemic, it would cost $40,000 per year based on four student lifeguards and 20 student parks labourers.

Director of Human Resource Services Al Bromley said only temporary student labourers will receive the student rate in 2020 for the first 700 hours worked and only high school student lifeguards would receive the student rate for the first 520 hours of work.

“The city has long established a practice of paying any employee enrolled in high school or post-secondary education less than employees not enrolled in studies,” Bromley said.

“So students at one time had to work 2,080 hours before qualifying for a non-student rate.”

Coun. Brian Swanson disagreed with phasing out the student rate. He said it was negotiated in the 1990s as a way to lower the operating costs of the parks and pools. He added that the parks and pools are currently running at losses and can’t take on more expenses.

Coun. Chris Warren said negotiating the new agreement is a give-and-take process.

“If the city had not possibly negotiated the student rates then possibly we’d be paying more on the annual increase, which has a ripple effect over time,” Warren said.

The previous collective bargaining agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2018.