A new contract has been reached between some 23,000 civil servants and the Alberta government, averting a strike that could’ve happened as soon as next week.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees says the mediator-recommended deal passed with 63 per cent of voting members in favour and 36.5 per cent opposed.

In a release Wednesday, the union said 71 per cent of eligible members voted.

The affected employees include administrative workers, some Alberta Sheriffs, social workers and provincial wildfire fighters.

The approved contract stemmed from a last-ditch mediated bargaining effort last month between the union and the province, and includes a 12 per cent wage increase over four years.

‘Tough choices’

The new contract will also see any roles currently paid below Alberta’s living wage of $22.65 have their base salary increased to that level. Those who reach 20 years of service during the life of the contract will get an automatic two per cent pay bump, the union said.

The deal will also see the province and union administer a new $11.4-million annual fund for recruitment and retention initiatives, with four per cent increases to the fund guaranteed every year.

The union, in its statement Wednesday, said it had been a difficult bargaining process and that it respects the members’ decision to accept the deal.

“This has been a difficult process, and members had to weigh tough choices,” said union president Guy Smith, who’s scheduled to speak to reporters Thursday about the new contract.

 Finance Minister Nate Horner said he was pleased to see the offer be accepted and thanked the union’s bargaining team for its role in getting a deal done, though he too acknowledged it was a long process.

“The agreement balances competitive compensation with long-term stability for both employees and the public service,” Horner said in a statement issued Wednesday. 

The labour dispute began heating up in the spring. 

Union members voted 90 per cent in favour of strike action in May after a government offer with the same pay increase was resoundingly rejected.

The strike vote was set to expire next week, and the union had said that if the deal had been rejected, its members would’ve hit the picket line.

While the union’s second biggest sector reached a deal Wednesday, it also received a lockout notice for a separate, much smaller group of workers for the town of Coaldale, about 225 kilometres south of Calgary.

The union said the town’s lockout is scheduled to take effect on Saturday and picket lines will be erected shortly afterwards if the lockout remains in effect. 

The town employees represented by the union, who number fewer than 50, had voted 83 per cent in favour of striking on Tuesday.