Significant pay rise coming to road signage workers

A city worker piles road salt on a mound at a city municipal depot in Montreal, Tuesday, January 23, 2018. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)

Road signage workers throughout Quebec are slated to receive significant pay increases between now and February 2025.

Their new collective agreement, which came into effect last February, demanded a basic wage of $18.99 an hour.

The draft decree, published Wednesday in the Gazette officielle du Québec, states their pay will actually rise in the coming weeks to $22 an hour, then $23 an hour next year and $24 an hour in 2025.

That indicates an increase of 26.3 per cent between now and February 2025, or $5.01 an hour over two years.

A collective bargaining decree covers all workers in an industry, whether or not they are union members, to provide minimum working conditions.

The United Steelworkers union, affiliated with the FTQ, which represents more than 1,000 road signage workers, says it is delighted with the increases.

Union representative Martin L'Abbée stated a catch-up was necessary.

However, he insisted other health and safety conditions must also be improved as traffic workers are overworked.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 4, 2023.