Employees of the former S-Vox voted on Thursday to ratify a tentative collective agreement with new owner ZoomerMedia.
The 40-member bargaining unit in Zoomer's television division now has a contract that provides for salary increases of 5.5 per cent over three years. The first year's increase of 2.5 per cent is retroactive to Sept. 1, 2010. There is a 1.5-per-cent increase in each of the two following years.
Keith Maskell, a Canadian Media Guild staff representative who was involved in the negotiations, says he is pleased with the nearly 100-per-cent turnout for the vote, which was 73 per cent in favour of the deal.
The bargaining team, which includes Branch President Rob VanSickle, Matthew Duffy and Marie Lofranco, had unanimously recommended acceptance of the deal.
Highlights of the agreement include:
A shift premium of $2.50 an hour between midnight and 6 a.m.
New special leave provisions allow employees to deal with family emergencies.
All vacancies within the bargaining unit are to be posted.
The Family Day holiday will be observed.
Clearer rules surrounding sick leave, temporary employees and work assignments.
The bargaining unit expects to acquire new TV production members when a planned merger takes place between the existing television division, formerly known as S-Vox, and ZoomerMedia's production and distribution unit.
ZoomerMedia Limited, a group of media operations including publishing and radio stations, is controlled by Moses Znaimer, the co-founder and head of Citytv, the first independent television station in Toronto. ZoomerMedia bought S-Vox in 2009.
This is the second collective agreement for Guild members at the company, who joined the union in 2005 when it was still known as Vision TV.