Nurses at Erie County Medical Center, the Erie County Home and the Health Department ratified a new contract late Tuesday after working without a pact since 2005.

Terms of the contract with the Western Region District of the New York State Nurses Association were not disclosed.

But a hospital official said the agreement significantly raises nurses’ salaries to “very competitive levels” in Western New York and makes retiree health insurance coverage more affordable for the hospital and county.

“The nurses have not had an increase in pay in some time. They were due a more competitive wage scale, and we saw how the wage issue gave us trouble recruiting nurses and lowered morale in the building,” said Jody Lomeo, the hospital’s interim chief executive officer.

A state commission ordered ECMC and Kaleida Health to form a unified, nonpublic governance structure that included the University at Buffalo. In an arrangement completed in June, the hospitals will remain separate for now while working toward the consolidation of key services.

But officials have cited the rising employee benefit costs at ECMC as a major stumbling block to achieving a full merger and investing in new programs at the medical center on Grider Street. County and hospital officials also have warned that the cost of providing fully paid health insurance to retirees will threaten the financial viability of the medical center in the future, especially with the downturn in the economy and a proposed state budget that cuts reimbursement to hospitals.

Lomeo said the agreement reflects the nurses’ recognition that retiree health insurance had to be restructured.

“I give the nurses a lot of credit. They saw that things are not going to get better in 2009, that we needed to confront this if we’re going to grow the services on Grider Street and build a better health system with Kaleida Health,” he said.

The union has about 720 members at ECMC; 60 at the Erie County Home, the nursing home affiliated with the medical center; and 47 at the Health Department. The county is responsible for negotiating the contracts, but medical center officials played a key role in bargaining because the majority of the nurses work at ECMC.

A union representative could not be reached to comment.

The agreement will extend through 2011.

“This contract is fair to the nurses, local taxpayers and future generations. It also highlights a positive and productive working relationship between Erie County and ECMC, and represents another step forward as we work to remove the county from the hospital business,” Erie County Executive Chris Collins said in a statement.

The county still must negotiate contracts with the bulk of its work force represented by Local 815, Civil Service Employees Association, and Local 1085, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.