Laurentian Bank announced today that it has resolved a major issue regarding pay with the union representing 2,000 of its employees.

Laurentian said the bank and the Office and Professional Employees; International Union received an arbitration board’s decision on annual wage increases amounting to 2% for most of the employees between 2004 and 2007.

Employees will also get annual pay hikes ranging from 1.5% to 3%, depending on position, from 2005 to 2007, along with lump-sum retroactive payments of 2.5% for the years 2001 to 2003, and 2% for 2004.

“The bank and the union report that they are satisfied with this partial decision rendered by the arbitration board,” Laurentian said in a release. “This ruling effectively resolves one of the major aspects of the collective agreement.”

However, two sides don’t expect that other components of the collective agreement will be settled until early 2005. Union employees have been working under a previous contract for several years and sought arbitration to help resolve some issues.