A two-year battle between the City of Moose Jaw and about 200 unionized workers has finally come to an end. 

At Monday night's city council meeting, a new contract between the two sides was approved. 

"I feel older," chuckled Stacey Landin, President of CUPE Local 9. "To finally have it over is a great relief to us."

The negotiations, which were sometimes contentious, concluded once the two sides were able to come to terms on a few major issues centred around on-call staffing in emergency situations, wages and the qualifications needed for employees to apply for available postings. 

"It used to be people who had 'sufficient ability to complete the work', meaning a combination of both experience and education," Landin explained. "It meant some people could work their way up and get some classes to formalize during a probation period (but) that's no longer an option.  You must have the qualifications at the time of posting.

Landin said the union will now do "some work together to make sure people have training options and the ability to work their way up by getting what they need before a job may be posted."

As for the wage increase, it amounts to 7.5% over four years, retroactive to January 1, 2015.  Landin says "The way the current economic climate is, we're happy with the way it ended up wage-wise. If that offer had been put on the table once the provincial budget came out I'm sure negotiations wouldn't have gotten to the degree they got."

Over the course of negotiations, the City had attempted to remove union employees in "supervisory roles" from the barganing table, but that move was rebuffed by the Saskatchewan Labour Relations board in a ruling this past January. 

A final settlement was reached a few weeks ago. 

"It was always refreshing that we got back to the table, talked about our differences, and eventually achieved the desired outcome for both," said Al Bromley, Human Resources Manager for the City of Moose Jaw. 

Because the four-year contract is retroactive to 2015, that means the new deal will expire December 31, 2018 - a little more than 19 months from now.

"We were entrenched in our positions and I believe that those differences are now behind us," Bromley added. "I'm not able to forecast the future but I'm encouraged. I think we should have a much easier go of negotiations next time."

"There was a lot of effort put forth by both parties to achieve and outcome that was satisfactory both for the employees and for the City. The long and short of it is I'm very, very pleased to have it behind us."