Last week, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by CapitalCare.
Based out Edmonton, CapitalCare is one of the largest public continuing care organizations in Canada. Their workers operate 10 care homes in the Edmonton area, as well as various day programmes, palliative care, rehabilitative care, and restorative care services.
HSAA represents over 150 paramedical workers employed by CapitalCare. They work as respiratory therapists, information management professionals, pharmacists, dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, recreational therapists, and music therapists.
Their most recent collective agreement expired in March 2024, over 2 years ago; although the workers’ bargaining team—which includes a pharmacists and a physiotherapist—did not meet with the employer until the following December.
Bargaining took forever. In fact, the two parties did not even exchange monetary proposals until this past February, over a year after negotiations had begun. Eventually, after 15 bargaining sessions, discussions broke down, and negotiations went to mediation in May.
Last week’s update reported that, with the mediator’s help, they had reached a tentative agreement.
The agreement, if ratified, would include wage increases in every year of the 4-year contract, and the first 3 wage increases will be retroactive.
| 1 April 2024* | 3.00% |
| 1 April 2025* | 3.00% |
| 1 April 2026* | 3.00% |
| 1 April 2027 | 3.00% |
| 12.00% |
12% over 4 years is what most public sector collective agreements have seen over the last year and a half or so.
However, like those other 12% contracts, this falls short of making up for lost wages because of year of wage freezes. Here are their wage increases over the previous two collective agreements:
| 1 April 2017 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2018 | 0.00% |
| 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% |
| 4.25% |
During this same period, inflation in Alberta rose by 21.17%. When you account for the 4.25% combined wage increase, these workers ended up with a cut to real wages of 16.92%.
As I said, 12% will not make up for those lost wages, leaving these workers still nearly 5 percentage points behind the cost of living.
Plus, that 12% is spread out over 4 years, which means another 4 years of inflation, which will drive that 5% back up.
For example, in the 3 years since April 2023, inflation in Alberta has already increased 7.88%, and we are barely halfway through what could be a new agreement.
Therapy assistants would be placed in a new salary grid, effective April 2026, if the new agreement is ratified. As such, therapy assistants should see an additional wage increase.
The tentative agreement proposes a 2% wage increase on top of the above wage increases for anyone who has been with CapitalCare for at least 20 years. This would not be a lump sum payment; it would increase their base pay rate, so it would have long-term effects on pay. The long-service pay adjustment would be effective as of September 2026.
On-call pay would increase to flat $7.00 an hour. Under the previous agreement, it was $3.30 an hour on regular scheduled days of work and $4.50 on days off and named holidays.
If ratified, the new agreement would introduce a new preceptor pay. This would be an additional $2 an hour for workers who supervise, educate, or evaluate students.
Mileage reimbursement would increase from 50.5¢ per kilometre to 57.0¢.
Coverage for massage therapy would increase to $75 per visit from $50 per visit to a maximum of $1000 per participant each benefit year.
The agreement would improve diabetes-related coverage, now including glucose monitoring systems.
If workers ratify the new agreement, they would eliminate the current waiting period for new workers to access benefits.
Workers would be reimbursed for professional fees and dues, up to $504, as long as they worked 810 hours in the previous registration year. This is not in the most recent collective agreement.
Professional development leave will be set at 3 days in a ratified agreement. The most recent agreement allowed for professional development leave but did not specify a number of days.
Under the previous collective agreement, workers were entitled to 10 days of unpaid domestic violence leave. That would change to 5 days paid and 5 days unpaid in the new agreement, if ratified.
Voting on the tentative agreement began this past Monday (6th) and will end next Monday (13th).
