Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by Alberta Pension Services.
Alberta Pensions Services Corporation guides the pension experience on behalf of Alberta’s public sector pension plans by providing administrative services to over 500 participating employers across Alberta.
The most recent collective agreement for these roughly 200 workers expired in March 2024, nearly 2 years ago. That agreement took over 2 years to ratify.
According to the release, the bargaining team for the workers have reached a tentative agreement with the employer.
The new agreement, if ratified, would include wage increases in every year of the proposed 4-year contract. This would lead to a 12% wage increase over the life of the agreement, or 12.55% if you account for compound increases.
This is more than what the employer originally asked for but less than what the workers asked for.
| Agreement | Employer’s proposal | Workers’ proposal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 April 2024 | 3.00% | 2.00% | 13.00% |
| 1 April 2025 | 3.00% | 2.00% | 6.50% |
| 1 April 2026 | 3.00% | 1.75% | 6.50% |
| 1 April 2027 | 3.00% | 1.75% | — |
| 12.00% | 7.50% | 26.00% |
So, looks like the employer had to move 4.5 percentage points off their original offer. Meanwhile, the workers had to move 14 percentage points from their first offer.
That does not seem like a middle-of-the-road settlement.
Keep in mind that over the course of the last two contracts, these workers received 4 wage freezes and a total wage increase of 3.75%. Since January 2017.
| 1 January 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2019 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2020 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 January 2024 | 1.50% |
During that same period, the consumer price index in Alberta increased 21.09%, from 137.0 to 165.9.
So, while these workers were getting 4 years of wage freezes and increases under 2% when they did get a raise, inflation was increasing at a rate that was nearly 6 times as fast!
As a result, they headed into negotiations with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 17.3%. There is no way a 12% increase over 4 years will cover that shortfall, especially when you consider that those 4 years also include 4 more years of inflation.
But at least there are no wage freezes this time around.
The first two wage increases will be retroactive, and will be available to former workers as well; although former workers will need to apply for retroactive pay.
Here are some other changes to the new collective agreement.
Disciplinary actions in a worker’s file will be removed after 24 months. It was 30 months in the previous collective agreement.
Paid holidays have been amended to include any day proclaimed by the provincial or federal governments. This would include the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
If the employer eliminates the remote work policy, they must provide 3 months’ notice. In the previous collective agreement, it was 30 days.
The new collective agreement introduces a new domestic violence leave, which will give workers 5 paid days off if they are a victim of domestic violence.
According to last week’s release, the workers’ bargaining team will hold informations sessions beginning tomorrow to present the tentative agreement and answer questions.
Voting will also begin tomorrow.
