EDMONTON - General Support Services staff who work for Alberta Health Services have ratified a mediator-recommended collective agreement for nearly 22,000 health care staff provincewide.
Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, says he's happy the contract was accepted.
He says front-line health care staff can now focus on patient care and not on workplace volatility.
The tentative three-year deal is retroactive to April 1, 2011.
It includes a wage increase of three per cent each year for the life of the contract.
Smith also says it makes improvements to hours of work, stat holidays, layoff and recall language, part-time definitions and classifications.
On Feb.16, thousands of workers across the province walked off the job in a one-day wildcat strike after the employer tabled an offer that was less than what was rejected by employees in an earlier mediator’s report.
Alberta Health Services must still ratify the tentative agreement.
