Keeping the employees they have and attracting new ones was at the heart of a new contract recently agreed to by the Estevan Police Association and City of Estevan.
The two sides recently came to terms on a two-and-a half -year pact that includes a 12 per cent increase for both uniformed officers and special constables/communications officers. It was officially ratified by the EPA Jan. 17 while the Estevan Board of Police Commissioners approved the deal during their regular meeting last Wednesday.
Both parties characterized the negotiations as cordial and professional and noted that it was hammered out over a short period of time.
"In the past we have done two hour sessions here and there; this time we dedicated specific dates to getting this job done and I believe that process was very beneficial to both sides," said Jay Pierson, president of the police association. "The end result is a contract that I think is favourable to both parties involved.
"Both parties came in with very thin proposals and by that, I mean not a lot of numbers on either side. We exchanged contracts in December and once we met on January 11, by the end of that day we were already discussing financial figures which is very unique in our process."
Former city councillor and current member of the police board, Shirley Thera, headed up the City's negotiating team for the second straight contract. She echoed Pierson's sentiments on the deliberations and said the 12 per cent increase is in line with the contract the City recently agreed to with its other unionized workers.
"The police association is not CUPE and CUPE is not the police, but there was a pattern the City set for money and we tried to stay within those bounds the best we could," said Thera.
"We got down to business fairly quickly and there wasn't a lot of changes. We did more discussing about long range issues."
When the new contract is fully implemented, the starting wage for a probationary constable will rise to roughly $53,000. A five-year constable will be paid just under $80,000. A sergeant will be paid around $97,000 until the 10-year mark when they receive an increase to roughly $101,000.
As for special constables/communication officers, they will now start at around the $42,000 mark and top out at almost $63,000 after 15 years of service.
Aside from the usual financial matters, Pierson said recruitment and retention was a key issue for the EPA as the Estevan Police Service has struggled to attract employees recently, particularly special constables and communications officers.
With that in mind, the sides made a handful of changes including altering the pay scale for those two positions.
"The entry level was removed so everything is moved up one level," said Pierson. "I hope that assists us in recruiting quality candidates. On the uniformed members side, the only increase after hitting the five-year mark was at 10 years. We've lowered that to the eight-year mark so a person can get an increase in wages without waiting five years for it.
"Every little bit will help (when it comes to recruiting). When we are looking for applicants, we are not getting nearly the amount that we need to get. That leaves us in a place where at times we are not filling those positions. We hope to change that with a few of these increases."
Pierson said although their current focus is on the special constable and communications officer positions, they also have concerns when it comes to attracting uniformed officers.
"We are not getting the amount of applications we need to get to get the quality of candidates we want. I think it is a trend in policing as a whole, especially when we look across Saskatchewan. In Estevan, when we look at the market of jobs and the entry wage scale that we are paying people to come and work for our organization, it's very hard to keep them."
Thera said keeping the officers they have is also an important issue for the police board. She noted the cost to the City every time they lose an officer is significant.
"It costs us huge dollars. Not just dollars to send people to Police College but dollars in uniforms and all kinds of other areas. Sooner or later somebody retires or they leave for whatever reasons and those you can predict. But what we are hoping to do is keep the new officers as long as we can and that makes it good for our city and good for our service and it certainly makes the chief's job a lot easier."
The EPA's previous contract with the City expired June 30, 2010. The sides agreed to a two-and-a-half year deal instead of the standard three-year contract so they could get in synch with the City's budget cycle.
