Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by CBI Home Health.
Based out of the Toronto area, CBI Home Health specializes in home care and integrated care services across Canada, including in Edmonton, where these workers are located.
AUPE represents nearly 500 health workers employed by CBI in the Edmonton area, including health care aides and licensed practical nurses.
They have been without a new collective agreement since their most recent one expired at the end of last year, which itself was not ratified until nearly 3 years after the previous one had expired.
According to last week’s update, the bargaining team that the workers has democratically chosen to represent them met with CBI’s bargaining team last month to exchange initial proposals.
Notable in the workers’ proposal is a 24% wage increase over 4 years.
| 1 January 2025 | 6.00% |
| 1 January 2026 | 6.00% |
| 1 January 2027 | 6.00% |
| 1 January 2028 | 6.00% |
| 24.00% |
They have also asked for a 20% market adjustment for LPNs and a 10% market adjustment for HCAs “to reflect and recognize the increased scope of practice and current market conditions”.
At the end of their last contract, the starting wage was $21.47 an hour for health care aides and $28.85 an hour for LPNs.
CBI did not include any wage increases in their initial proposals.
Here are some other changes the workers included in their initial proposal.
They want a 2% increase for workers who have been with CBI Home Health for over 10 years.
Under the previous agreement, a shop steward or other union rep could meet with new workers for up to 30 minutes. The workers have proposed increasing this to 60 minutes.
The workers would like CBI Home Health to provide compulsory and paid in-service sessions on CPR; fire, evacuation and disaster procedures; and proper lifting and prevention of back injuries. They would also like optional in-service sessions on prevention and management of staff abuse; management of aggressive behaviour; and other education programs on maintaining proficiency, including medication assistance training.
They also proposed 3 days of paid professional developmental leave per year.
CBI, under the previous agreement, would recognize previous work experience of new workers when determining their basic pay rate. However, they would look at only work experience within the last 2 years. The workers’ bargaining has proposed expanding that to within the last 5 years.
They would also like to change the shift premiums, including introducing a new evening premium for workers working between 15:00 and 22:00.
| Old | New | |
|---|---|---|
| Evening | — | $2.75 |
| Night, LPN | $1.50 | $5.00 |
| Night, HCA | $1.00 | $5.00 |
| Weekend | $0.75 | $3.25 |
They also want these premiums to retroactive to January 2025.
The workers’s proposals also included adding Boxing Day and National Truth and Reconciliation Day as named holidays, which are used to determine stat pay. This would increase the number of named holidays to 12. They also want any holidays proclaimed by the municipal, provincial, or federal governments included on this list.
Speaking of which, they also want to increase stat holiday from time-and-a-half to double time for workers who have to work on named holidays.
CBI Home Health has to pay 50% of billed health premiums under the current agreement. The workers want this to increase to 75%, which would decrease their portion from 50% to just 25%.
The bargaining team for the workers would like to increase the maximum accrual of sick days from the current 40 hours to 960 hours. They also want doctor’s notes fully reimbursed if CBI requires them from the workers.
They have asked for funeral leave of 1 paid day for workers to attend the funeral or memorial service of close friends and non-immediate family members.
Their proposal introduces a new domestic violence leave, the first 5 days of which would be paid leave.
CBI’s initial proposals focused primarily on scheduling changes, completely leaving out monetary proposals.
The workers’ bargaining team want the new collective agreement to expire at the end of 2028, but CBI wants it to last an additional year.
Given that bargaining went on for over 2.5 years last time, it might be a while before we find out what compromises the two parties make.
