Calgary care home workers get real wage cut

Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees posted a bargaining update on their website for care home workers in Calgary.

The workers, who are employed at the Clifton House and Wentworth Manor care homes, had been without a new contract since March 2019 and December 2022, respectively.

The care homes are operated by Brenda Stafford Foundation.

Workers at the two locations had been under separate contracts, but the employer approached the workers’ bargaining team last summer to discuss combining the two bargaining units into a single collective agreement.

According to the collective bargaining agreement database maintained by Alberta Labour Relations, this new bargaining unit will now represent around 350 new subscribers,

Because the Clifton House workers had been waiting for a new contract the longer of the two groups, they will see a larger increase in pay, all retroactive.

The first increase is 1% and effective 1 October 2021. The second increase is 1.25%, retroactive to 1 September 2022. Finally, a 2% increase will be retroactive to 1 April 2023.

Remember, however, that their last contract expired in March 2019, which means there are no wage increases retroactive to 2019 or 2020. Their last increase was in April 2018.

Here’s how the increases break down by year:

1 April 2019	0.00%
1 April 2020	0.00%
1 October 2021	1.00%
1 September 2022	1.25%
1 April 2023	2.00%

That comes to a combined 4.25%, or an average of 0.85% per year.

The previous contract saw 3 increases of 1%, followed by 1.2% in the final year. If we add up all the increases since 2014, including the new ones, these workers end up with a combined 8.76% (that’s compounding increases).

Now let’s look at inflation.

In April 2014, the consumer price index in Alberta was 132.2. Last April, 9 years later, it sat at 163.7, a 23.83% increase.

So while inflation skyrocketed by nearly 24% over the past 9 years, these workers end up with a wage increase of less than 9%. That results in a reduction in real wages, which is wages adjusted for inflation.

When you get an 8.76% increase but inflation is 23.83%, your raise works out to a 15.07% reduction in real wages.

In other words, what you used to be able to buy for $100 in 2014 now costs you $115.07. Either that, or the same $100 allows to buy only $84.93 worth of the same goods and services.

Clifton House workers are set to receive lump sum payment of 1% for all hours worked in 2021, which will help a bit. The downside to lump sum payments, however, is that they don’t actually change your base salary. That means that the 2022 raise will be based on the 2021 raise of 1%, not 2%.

The story is a bit different for the workers at Wentworth Manor. They unionized only in 2018, so this new contract is just their second contract since unionization.

They are set to receive two wage increases: 1.25% as of December 2022 and 2% as of last April. The problem with this is that these are their first raises since becoming unionized. They ended up with only wage freezes in both years of their first contract.

31 December 2020	0.00%
31 December 2021	0.00%
31 December 2022	1.25%
1 April 2023	2.00%

That’s a combined increase of 3.28%, or an average of 0.82% per year over the last 4 years, which is about what the Clifton House workers got, too.

The consumer price index in December 2019 (the last year before the workers were under a union contract), the consumer price index in Alberta was 143.7, and last month, 4 years later, it was 165.6.

That’s a 15.24% increase.

Once again, the workers end up getting wage increases that don’t keep up with inflation, even though it was over only a 4-year period. In fact, these workers will receive a cut to real wages of 11.96%.

A 12% reduction in wages isn’t as bad as the 15% or so cut the Clifton House workers got though.

Either way, this employer is not taking care of its workers, who are themselves taking care of the people living in these facilities.

Enough about wages. Let’s move on to other changes in the consolidated contract.

Both workers will get a new paid holiday, as Day of Truth and Reconciliation has been added to their named holidays.

Clifton House workers who have been with the company for 10 years will be eligible for 5 weeks of paid vacation. Previously, you had to be with the company for 13 years. Wentworth Manor workers will be eligible for 6 weeks of vacation once they hit the 23-year mark. The previous maximum was 5 weeks.

For both sets of workers, licensed practical nurses who are assigned as preceptors to LPN students will receive an addition 65¢ an hour. For Clifton House workers, it used to be 45¢ an hour.

Clifton House workers will be able to divert up to 4% of their pay to an RRSP, up from the 3.5% maximum in their previous contract. The employer will make a matching contribution.

Part-time and casual workers employed at Wentworth Manor can receive 5% pay in lieu of holiday under the new contract.

The employer has agreed to increase the employer-paid benefit premiums for Wentworth Manor workers to 75% from 65%, as of this April.

The workers participated in a ratification vote on 4 January, and AUPE reported that those who showed up to vote “overwhelmingly” voted in favour of the new consolidated contract.

The new contract will expire in March 2024, so AUPE plans to serve bargaining notice shortly for the next contract, according to Alexander Delorme, a communications officer with the union.