London firefighters have kept wage parity with police officers and ended the longest contract battle in Canadian firefighting history with a nine-year contract giving them average yearly increases of 2.4 per cent.

At a special Friday night meeting city council approved the tentative deal for 385 London firefighters.

The retroactive pact goes all the way back to Jan 1, 2011.

The average annual pay for a first-class firefighter will rise to $93,734 from $85,503, a month from now, with further increases until the contract expires in 2019, said Jason Timlick, president of the London Professional Fire Fighters Association .

By comparison, the annual wage for a first-class police constable in London starts at $92,849 and maxes out at $101,205.

The fire fighters will receive retroactive pay for increases since 2011, but London Mayor Matt Brown could not immediately say how much that totals.

Timlick said maintaining parity with police was crucial after the long standoff that included contract arbitration.

“It was the driver behind the lengthy arbitration, and we achieved it. There were gains and concessions on both sides,” he said.

Timlick noted the deal was ratified by 91 per cent of the members of the firefighters’ association.

City hall had sought some taxpayer-friendly concessions, including an end to fire-police pay parity.

Brown said the city has costed out the deal and it won’t result in an increase in taxes.

He said the city did win concessions in areas such as lieu days, contracting out some work and taking four platoon chiefs out of the bargaining unit.

City council went into closed session for almost two hours before the politicians ratified the deal.

Most councillors struck a conciliatory tone and expressed relief the process is over.

“It’s a new day in our relationship with firefighters,” said Coun. Paul Hubert

But Ward 4 councillor Jesse Helmer said he regretted the negotiation process was so long and difficult.

“We have some work to do in the public sector with employees earning $100,00 or more,” he said. “Taxpayers, especially property taxpayers, cannot sustain significant annual raises in salary.”

What firefighters are paid has become a sore spot for taxpayers because many firefighters appear annually on the so-called sunshine list of public employees making $100,000 or more.

Firefighters have been working under an expired contract since 2010 and had been in arbitration.

Relations with the city grew tense over the years, particularly with Art Zuidema, the recently-departed city manager who’s been replaced by Martin Hayward.

Just two weeks after Hayward took over permanently as city hall’s top bureaucrat, there was a breakthrough in the talks.

hdaniszewski@postmedia.com

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