Tentative four-year contract for public-sector nurses raises pay, incentives, shift premiums, bonuses

Manitoba’s public-sector nurses are set to vote on a four-year deal that includes wage increases and bonuses for working weekends and in remote areas.

Next week’s vote, if approved, would see annual general wage increases of 2.5 per cent retroactive to April 1, 2.75 in 2025 and three per cent in the third and fourth years.

The contract highlights obtained by the Free Press include pay hikes for working weekends, in remote areas and emergency rooms, and rewards nurses for long service.

There’s an across-the-board “market adjustment” increase of one per cent retroactive to April 1 for all classifications of nurses, and pay increases for long service with the the creation of 15-year and 25-year salary steps, in addition to increasing the 20-year step.

The Manitoba Nurses Union would not provide any details of the tentative deal that it is recommending to its members or offer any comment on it until after members have voted on it next Thursday and Friday.

The offer includes market adjustments for licensed practical nurses of three per cent retroactive to April 1, and one per cent in each of the following two years.

The salary scales in the Northern Health region increase five per cent retroactive to April 1 (a 10 per cent differential from the standard rate), and five per cent next April 1 (a 15 per cent differential from the standard). A retention/isolation bonus is increased to $10,000 for nurses in Berens River and biweekly remoteness allowances will increase by 11.25 per cent during the four-year contract. Relocation assistance increases to $7,500 from $5,000.

Starting next April, there will be an hourly full-time incentive of $5.95 for LPNs and several other nurse classifications. The incentive applies not only to full-time nurses but to part-time and casual nurses that work up to full-time hours.

On top of incentives for years of service and working in the North, the offer includes a $2 hourly premium for working in an emergency department or urgent care.

Premiums for working weekends increase to $5.75 an hour from $2, including Friday evening and Sunday night, as well as a 25-cent-per-hour increase for both evening and night-shift premiums.

Intensive-care unit nurses will receive an hourly premium of $3. Those who work in an emergency department with an ICU will receive a premium of $4 an hour. At emergency department/urgent-care centres without an ICU (Concordia, Seven Oaks, Victoria, Dauphin, Swan River, The Pas, Flin Flon, Thompson, Selkirk, Portage la Prairies, Neepawa, Boundary Trails and Bethesda), nurses will receive an hourly premium of $2.

Nurses assigned to triage duties will receive a premium of $2 per hour.

The deal offers a reassignment premium of $6, or 15 per cent more per hour — whichever is greater — that applies when there are staff shortages, including those that are unforeseen. The premium for those covering shifts involuntarily doubles after three shifts.

Other improvements include a health spending account increase to $1,250 for full-time nurses (from $750), and $1,000 for part-time nurses (from $350).

Sick-time accrual increases to 1.5 days per month from 1.25 days per month, with two personal wellness days in each fiscal year.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca