Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the January 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In December, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 28 private sector and 11 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 4,351 and 944 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 60 workers employed by Connecting Care.
Based out of Edmonton, Continuing Care owns several senior living facilities in Alberta and Saskatchewan, including Points West Living Cold Lake, which this workers operate.
The workers in this collective agreement are employed in such positions as kitchen workers, hospitality aides, care aides, health care aides, licensed practical nurses, and maintenance workers.
They’re represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
The previous contract for these workers expired at the end 2022. The new contract was settled in August 2024, more than a year and a half later; although Mediation Services only recently received their copy.
This new collective agreement is for just 1 year, expiring at the end of 2023. That means that by the time it was settled last summer, it had already been expired for 8 months.
Each of the last two collective agreements last 3 years, so it’s odd that they’re getting only 1 year in the new contract.
Workers received a 1.75% wage increase in the only year of this 1-year contract, effective January 2023. However, care aides and health care aides received a $2 an hour top up in October 2023.
In their last contract, they got a wage freeze in their first year, half a percent in their second year, and just 1% in their final year. Plus, at least they got a signing bonus, too.
That brings us to 3.25% over a 4-year period.
Meanwhile, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 140.5 points in January 2019 to 160.5 in January 2023. That’s a 14.23% increase.
Because these workers got a 3.25% wage increase while inflation ballooned to 14.23% during the same period, they were left with a cut to real wages of 10.98%.
Hopefully they’re calling for at least a 11% raise for their first year in their new round of bargaining to make up for it.
Actually, since inflation rose by 3.36% between January 2023 and January 2024, Connecting Care better make that first wage increase 15%, just to be safe.
Oh, and on that note, the starting wage for kitchen workers and hospitality aides will still be below $20 an hour by the end of the contract, and everyone else other than licensed practical nurses will have a starting wage of under $25 an hour.
Here are some changes between the the new collective agreement and their previous one.
In the previous contract, the employer was supposed to send all job postings and notices of hire to the Chapter chair, with copies going to the membership services officer of the union. Now, they go directly to the membership services officer.
There were significant changes to the article on additional shifts
Old
a. Additional hours or shifts required to be worked shall firstly be offered to Part-time Employees. Such hours or shifts shall be communicated to all Part-time Employees by the use of mas communication notification methods. The Part-time Employees shall be provided 24 hours, from the time the notification was sent out, to respond. Following the 24 hours the additional hours or shifts shall be equitably distributed, as far as that is possible, within the preferences of the Part-time Employees.
b. Following the 24 hours referenced Clause 10.0S(a), any remaining hours or shifts required to be filled, shall be communicated to all Casual Employees by the use of mass communication notification methods. Hours or shifts shall be equitably distributed among Casual Employees, as far as that is possible within their preferences.
c. Part-time Employees who communicate to the Employer they are available for additional hours or shifts after the 24 hours referenced Clause 10.0S(a), may still be offered hours or shifts that are required to be filled, but the preference over Casual Employees no longer applies.
d. Employees accepting additional hours or shifts are responsible to advise the Employer, at time of acceptance, that they would qualify for overtime if the additional hours or shift was worked. Offering additional hours or shifts shall not result in the Employee becoming eligible for overtime payment.
New
a. Part-time Employees who wish to be considered for additional hours, in the same classification, and who so indicate their availability in writing on a monthly basis to the Employer shall be given preference and first opportunity to work any additional hours. If all available shifts are not filled, then Casual Employees may be assigned shifts as equitably as possible. Employees who do not submit their availability in writing will not be offered the opportunity to work additional shifts for that particular month.
b. Shifts that are known to be available prior to the posting of the schedule, or shifts that become available after the posting of the schedule that are not a short notice shift, shall be filled by Part-time Employees within the classification first. Subject to the Part-time Employee’s written availability, in order of seniority, on a rotational basis. The Employer shall bypass a Part-time Employee on the list who would be eligible for overtime if scheduled to work an available shift.
c. When shifts become available on short notice after the posting of the schedule the Employer shall send a mass communication to all Part-time and Casual Employees, who have submitted their availability in writing. A time-limited response of 15 minutes is provided and all respondents will be considered. If no Part-Time Employees responds, the shift is awarded to the first Casual Employee who is contacted. The Employer shall bypass any Employee on the list who would be eligible for overtime if scheduled to work a short notice shift. 10.06
d. If after exhausting the process outlined in 10.05 (c) vacant shifts remain, the Employer shall call Part-time and Casual Employees who have submitted their availability in writing but who did not respond to the mass communication. If no Part-time Employee accepts, the shift is awarded to the first Casual Employee who is contacted and accepts. The Employer shall bypass any Employee on the list who would be eligible for overtime if scheduled to work a short notice shift.
The article on call backs was removed.
The hours for the evening shift differential changed from 15:30–23:30 to 14:30–22:30 and from 16:00–midnight to 15:00–23:00.
As a result, the night shift differential hours also shifted, from 23:30–07:30 to 22:30–06:30 and midnight–08:00 to 23:00–07:00.
Workers may need to provide proof of illness for any sick leave longer than 2 days. In the previous contract, proof could’ve been requested for any duration of sick leave.
The following clause was added to the article on time of vacation:
Full-time employees and part-time employees shall be granted their choice of vacation periods, however, the final allotment of vacation remains within the responsibility and authority of the employer.
There were other substantive changes made to this article:
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c. Where the number of Employees indicating a preference for a specific period exceeds the number of Employees as determined by the Employer that can be allocated vacation during that period, then seniority within the classification shall be the deciding factor. However, the application of seniority shall not be used to overturn vacation periods for employees with less seniority where the Employer has already approved the vacation.
d. Full-time Employees and Part-Time Employees shall be granted their choice of vacation periods, however, the final allotment of vacation remains within the responsibility and authority of the Employer.
New
c. At minimum, an amount of vacation, time, and pay, equal to an Employee’s entitlement specified in the Alberta Employment Standards Code shall be taken in the following vacation year at a time mutually agreeable between the Employer and Employee.
d. Between January 1st and March 1st, Employees will submit their vacation request(s) for the year. The Employer shall then respond in writing by March 15th. Vacation requests received within this time period shall be considered in descending order of seniority by job classification.
In the article on vacation pay, this clause:
A vacation list shall be made available to the staff as early as is practical in the new calendar year stating vacation days entitlement available for the current vacation year.
was replaced with this clause:
An Employee required by the Employer to return to work during their vacation will receive one and one-half times (1½ ✕) their basic rate of pay for hours worked. In addition to receiving the premium pay, the time so worked will be rescheduled as vacation leave with pay.
This was added to the article on vacation pay for casual workers:
An Employee required by the Employer to return to work during their vacation will receive one and one-half times (1½ ✕) their basic rate of pay for hours worked. In addition to receiving the premium pay, the time so worked will be rescheduled as vacation leave with pay.
