Members at Rona Terrebonne ratify new deal – UFCW 500

Terrebonne, Que. – July 17, 2017 – UFCW Canada Local 500 members working at Rona in Terrebonne, Quebec have ratified a new six-year collective agreement that provides wage increases, new full-time positions, and much more.

Under the new contract, members will receive a 1.75% wage increase after completing 1,040 hours of work. Workers at the bottom of the wage scale will see increases of $0.10 and $0.35 per hour whenever the minimum wage is raised, depending on the employee’s wage rate. And workers at the top end of the wage scale will receive wage increases of 1.5% retroactive to December 1, 2016; 1.5% for 2017 and 2018; and 1.75% in 2019 through to 2022.  

Other highlights of the agreement include the abolishment of most part-time positions and the creation of four new “regular salaried” positions that provide 30 to 40 hours per week. This means the majority of employees whose positions were previously part-time will now have access to a regular salaried position.  

The agreement also contains enhancements in regard to overtime, whereby employees will be able to choose compensatory paid time off equivalent to the number of overtime hours worked, plus 50 percent, instead of receiving overtime pay. In addition, the agreement introduces a banked hours mechanism to take time off for vacation, occupational illness or injury, union leave, preventive withdrawal, maternity, paternity or parental leave, personal leave, and holidays.  

As well, the contract adds 16, 32, and 40 hours of available annual sick leave depending on the status of the employee. Improved language for work schedules, travel procedures for regular and part-time employees, employee availability, breaks and meals, and holidays was also achieved. 

“This agreement is one of the many negotiations we have undertaken with Lowes, the new owner of the Rona banner stores, and it will play a decisive role in establishing working conditions throughout the hardware sector, both because of the exemplary way in which negotiations were conducted and because of the excellent results that we obtained,” says Antonio Filato, the President of UFCW Canada Local 500. 

“I want to congratulate the members of the bargaining committee for their excellent work and for establishing a framework for healthy labour relations in the years to come,” Brother Filato adds.