Casino Lac Leamy has been the arena of extensive discussions and tension between the casino workers there and the management for quite a while. This week witnessed the ratification of a tentative agreement directly affecting casino staff and meeting their expectations. The new contract they obtained will see their daily employment up until April 30, 2025.
Canadian Union of Public Employees is the union protecting the worker’s best interest. The union representing the workers in question has been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement with the casino, which would be suitable for the employees. The previous collective contract expired back in 2018 and it has not been settled yet. At the start of November 2021, the workers voted unanimously in favor of a strike.
New Tentative Agreement
That month witnessed the 80 security guards and surveillance workers from the property threaten to go out on a general strike as a way of demonstrating their frustration with the company owner of the casino. Loto-Québec is the Crown corporation overseeing daily operation of the gaming hotspot for years now.
Over the last few weeks, the future of this gaming location and its employees remained in limbo, but this period has come to an end. This week witnessed the official ratification of the tentative agreement directly affecting casino workers that are unionized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE 3993 is the membership that greenlighted this new agreement with the Crown corporation. Individuals appear to be content with the new arrangement.
It runs all the way to April 30, 2025 and brings a salary bump of two percent for the year 2020, as well as three percent for the years 2021 and 2022. The upcoming two years are also going to witness a wage increase. In 2023, casino workers will see a 2.5 percent increase, whereas the year 2024 is set to bring a 2 percent surge.
More Details
Casino Lac Leamy is also in for a treat, as the casino workers will benefit from a new premium with the help of the new tentative agreement. The individuals working over the weekend will benefit from an entirely new premium, whereas the people working during the night shifts will see an increase. Canadian Union of Public Employees Representative Guy Gosselin, said that the results have met expectations, especially given the circumstances.
In the meantime, two more union organizations associated with the casino work on new collective agreements. Those represent workers in the general unit and security guards. It could be recalled that negotiations between union CUPE 3959 and the casino were at a dead end as both sides could not agree over the proposed salary increase. The proposed number was considered insufficient as it was below the rate of inflation, which continues to rise.
In December 2021, reports coming from Quebec pointed out that one of the largest casino properties has failed to properly implement provincial health and safety protocols. The perpetrator, in this case, is Casino Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, and the property’s violations were first noticed by a nursing assistant at the Hull Hospital, and later confirmed by a Radio-Canada investigation.
Source: “Tentative agreement ratified at the Lac Leamy Casino“, CUPE, January 20, 2022
