Members of the Toronto Police Association have overwhelmingly ratified a four-year contract that includes salary increases but claws back the lucrative sick pay benefit for new recruits.

More than 3,800 uniform and civilian employees voted 92.5 per cent in favour of the 2015-2018 deal that includes a cumulative pay increase of 8.64 per cent. The TPA announced the results of the mail-in vote Tuesday in a notice sent to police divisions across the city.

The wage hike for about 7,000 employees will boost their salaries by 2.75 per cent this year, followed by 1.95 next year and 1.90 and 1.75 per cent in the final two years.

The contract will result in $203.5 million in long-term and short-term liability savings over the life of the contract, a source familiar with the deal said Tuesday night.

“Three years under 2 per cent and the elimination of the sick bank, in addition to other entitlements, is an enormous accomplishment that would have been inconceivable had this gone to arbitration,” said the source.

It is the first labour deal negotiated under Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard)’s administration. It means Toronto’s new mayor, who sits on the civilian oversight board, avoids a showdown with the powerful police union which has, in the past, been embroiled in labour disputes with his predecessors, including former mayor David Miller.

The base salary for a Toronto police first class constable will grow to $98,450 by 2018, though an officer receiving maximum retention pay — an entitlement police retained — would receive $107,312.

Benefits add 27 per cent to the total cost of each officer, 2014 police figures show.

The deal, reached last month between the union and the Toronto Police Services Board — also eliminates a longstanding perk for new recruits that allowed police employees to bank up to 18 sick days a year.

Existing members retain the benefit, which costs the service about $12 million annually when employees quit or retire. Phasing out the banked sick pay entitlement was a key factor in the 2009 garbage strike.

Councillor Shelley Carroll (open Shelley Carroll's policard), one of the board’s two representatives on the negotiating committee, called the contract “precedent-setting” when compared to previous Toronto police contracts that usually included pay hikes averaging more than 3 per cent a year.

“This speaks to the economic times,” she said Tuesday. It is also recognition by TPA members that “cops in local communities and (workers) in other walks of life are receiving modest or no increases.”

In 2011, the service’s officers were awarded an 11.4 per cent raise over four years. The last contract expired Dec. 31.

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The total impact of the salary settlement is $75 million — compared to $100 million negotiated in the last contract, Carroll said.

Salaries make up roughly 90 per cent of the police budget, which this year has grown to $1.156 billion.