FREDERICTON -- An arbitration board has awarded full-time academic staff at the University of New Brunswick wage increases over three years that total 12.5 per cent.

The Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers, which represents 575 full-time academics, issued a statement Tuesday saying it is pleased with the binding award.

The wage increases in each year of a three-year contract, which expires in June 2016, amount to 3.5 per cent in the first year, four per cent in the second year and five per cent in the final year.

Academic staff went on strike Jan. 13 after talks failed to resolve a dispute over salaries and workload.

Picket lines went up at campuses in Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton and Bathurst, ending classes for 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students for three weeks.

The union had asked for a 20 per cent wage increase over four years and the university was originally offering nine per cent.

Classes resumed Feb. 3 after a mediator helped reach a tentative settlement Jan. 30 that resolved virtually all issues in the dispute, except wages.

Arbitrator Brian Keller was later called in make a binding decision about wages.

The association had said it was seeking salaries comparable to those paid to full-time academic staff in a comparable group of 14 universities, saying wages at the University of New Brunswick were well below average.

The university's representative on the three-member arbitration board, Richard Petrie, issued a dissenting statement, saying Keller's award was not justified by the evidence and was unreasonably high.

"Those increases go well beyond the economic adjustments experienced within the comparable group of 14 universities," he said.