Many Montreal drivers had to get home without the help of snowplows on Wednesday. (CBC) Montreal city officials are downplaying a labour dispute that shut down snow plowing operations during one of the biggest snowstorms to hit the city so far this year.

Six hundred blue collar workers in several boroughs parked their plows in the middle of the afternoon rush hour Wednesday.

The workers, who received their pay cheques on Wednesday, said the city shorted them on their overtime payments for last month. As a result, the workers refused to do any overtime when their shifts ended at 4:15 p.m.

For several hours, snow piled up on streets and sidewalks in seven boroughs, including Plateau-Mont-Royal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

City and union officials took the issue up at a hastily called meeting of the essential services council Wednesday evening. By 10 p.m., the two sides had reached a deal on work hours and overtime payments.

Blue collar union president Michel Parent defended the decision to hold the protest in the middle of the afternoon rush hour.

Montreal's blue collar workers have been without a contract for two years.

"It demonstrates the kind of employer the City of Montreal is," Parent said. "I think that people will begin to understand that workers are fed up being managed by irresponsible managers — fed up right up to their toques."

New snow chief blames glitch for pay problem

Snow plows return to the roads Wednesday night after the city and union reached a deal. (CBC) Luis Miranda, the city's executive committee member in charge of snow removal, blamed bureaucratic red tape and a paperwork glitch for the problem with the worker's latest cheques.

Miranda, who was appointed the city's snow chief this week, admitted it wasn't the best way to start a new job.

"Listen, nobody likes these situations," he told CBC News. "These situations are very hard to handle. It's upsetting. It happened."

The city's snow clearing strategy relies heavily on blue collar workers doing overtime during heavy snow storms. Montreal received more than 20 centimetres of snowfall on Wednesday.

Miranda said most of the affected boroughs only lost snow removal services for two hours. By the time the morning rush hour had started on Thursday, Miranda said the crews had already caught up.

"It was a short-lived situation ... Everything is back to normal right now," said Miranda.