THUNDER BAY – Non-unionized staff with the City of Thunder Bay, including management and other non-affiliated positions, will see a staggered 4 per cent increase to their pay in 2022.
The hike, approved in a near-unanimous vote by city council Monday, is split between a 2 per cent general increase retroactive to Jan. 1, and a 2 per cent market adjustment effective July 1.
The raise applies to a group of close to a thousand staff, including 319 managers and other non-unionized staff, and 566 part-time or seasonal "non-affiliated" employees like lifeguards, concession clerks, fitness instructors, and delivery drivers, who are not represented in collective bargaining.
The increase will cost the city just over $1.4 million in 2022, a spokesperson said, with management and non-unionized staff accounting for over $1.1 million of that.
City manager Norm Gale said the historically large increase is a response to inflationary pressures, as well as what he called the city’s declining competitiveness in what it offers for those positions.
“The reason for [the increase] is to make the [city] more competitive against our competitors for skilled labour,” he said. “We are falling behind, on a relative basis – against other municipalities, against the private sector, and against the public sector parameters we measure against.”
The city currently falls short of a benchmark it's set for compensation for those groups, Gale said. It aims to be exactly in the middle of a group of comparable cities, using the annual Mercer's survey of compensation levels at Ontario municipalities, but has fallen increasingly short of the 50th percentile, he said.
The city lagged behind the average for comparitor municipalities in that report by 9.1 per cent in 2021, staff said.
The pandemic has also complicated the situation.
“We do have difficulties in recruiting and retention, and competitiveness is one of the issues,” Gale said. “There are other issues: societal changes as the result of the pandemic, a weak labour force if you’re an employer, changes to the way people view work life… We’re in a dynamic environment, so we need to be competitive, and that means we need to respond to market forces.”
Coun. Mark Bentz cast a lone vote against the increase as council voted Monday, after hearing a report in closed session. Couns. Aiello and Foulds declared conflicts on the issue.
Non-affiliate staff saw salaries rise by 2.5 per cent in 2021, after a one-year pay freeze.
