The strike by OC Transpo employees disrupted transit in the winter of 2008-09. (CBC)

OC Transpo has reached a tentative deal with its transit union that addresses some issues that caused the bitter strike in the winter of 2008-09, the union's head says.

"If this deal was on the table a year-and-a-half ago, I'm sure we wouldn't have been out for 54 days," said Mike Aldrich, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279. "This is basically what we wanted."

But a city official disputed that, saying that the changes to scheduling in the agreement were not the grounds for the strike.

The tentative deal includes changes to working hours and schedules, issues in the dispute that disrupted Ottawa from Dec. 10, 2008 until Feb. 9, 2009.

The strike was settled by binding arbitration. But the contract left bus drivers unhappy with their schedules and OC Transpo paying huge amounts of overtime to keep the system running.

The union approached the city early in the summer, looking for amendments to the contract.

Among the details:

• Employees are guaranteed an eight-hour workday, up from 7.5 hours, so they will no longer have to look for extra shifts to satisfy pension requirements.
• The "spread time" of shifts, the period over which a shift is scheduled, is extended to 12.5 hours from 12.
• The number of sick days that can be banked is set at 12 over two years.
• The number of so-called "straight runs" (a shift where one driver operates one bus along one route) is tripled.
• The next contract will contain no changes to schedules.

City councillors approved the deal Wednesday. Union members will vote on the agreement Thursday, with the results to be announced Friday.

The drivers, mechanics and dispatchers went on strike over wages and schedules just before Christmas in 2008.

City council voted for binding arbitration on Jan. 30, 2009 and the union backed the proposal the next day.

Limited train service resumed Feb. 2 but buses didn't start running until Feb. 9.