Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the February 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In February, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 16 private sector and 5 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 1,598 and 3,407 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 10 workers employed by the East Central 911 Call Answer Society.
Based out of Wainwright, the non-for-profit employer provides emergency 911 and dispatch services to 22 member municipalities in east-central Alberta.
The workers in this collective agreement include all the emergency communications officers employed by the society. They’re represented by the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.
The previous contract expired back in December 2024. This new contract was settled back in January, just a week or so after the last one expired.
The new collective agreement is for 3 years, which is less than the 5-year term in the previous agreement.
These workers are set to receive wage increases in every year of their new contract.
| 1 January 2025 | 4.0% |
| 1 January 2026 | 3.5% |
| 1 January 2027 | 2.5% |
This works out to a combined 10% over the course of the contract, or 10.33% if you account for compound increases. That’s 3.33% (3.44%) per year on average.
That’s actually better than what they got in their last contract.
| 1 January 2020 | 0.0% |
| 1 January 2021 | 0.0% |
| 1 January 2022 | 0.0% |
| 1 January 2023 | 4.0% |
| 1 January 2024 | 1.5% |
A combined increase of 5.5% over 5 years, means they got 1.1% per year on average, way less than their new contract. Three years of freezes has that effect on wages.
That’s not all though.
Between January 2019 and January 2024, the consumer price index in Alberta rose from 140.5 to 165.9, an increase of 18.08%.
Since inflation was 18.08% during the period that these workers got just 5.5% in raises, that means they were left with a cut to real wages of 12.58%.
That means that while their increase of 10% in their new contract is substantial, it’ll still leave them with a real wage cut of 2.58%. Now keep in mind that the 10% raise is over 3 years, so there’s still 3 more years of inflation to drive down real wages even more.
Inflation rose by 2.53% between January 2024 and January 2025, for example. If that keeps up throughout the contract, these workers could end up with a real wage cut of over 10%, completely wiping out the gains they got in this contract.
Here’s a look at what else has changed between the previous collective agreement and the new one.
The probationary period has changed for casual workers. It used to read as follows:
A newly hired casual Employee shall be considered as contributing up to five hundred and forty-seven and decimal five (547.5) hours of time worked as a casual, excluding overtime, towards the completion of the one thousand and ninety-five (1095) hours worked
But now reads:
A newly hired casual Employee shall be considered as contributing up to one thousand and ninety-five (1095) hours worked
The night shift premium has increased from $3.00 an hour for all hours worked between 19:00 and 07:00 to $4.00 an hour.
Vacation pay has changed for casual workers:
| Length of service | Old rate | New rate |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 years | 4% | 5% |
| 3–10 years | 6% | 7% |
| 10–19 years | 8% | 9% |
| 20+ years | 8% | 12% |
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation has been added to the list of named holidays, bringing the list to 12. These are the holidays used to determine stat pay.
Pension contributions have increased from 7% of the annual salary to 8% for both the employer and the worker.
The following has been added to the contract:
When an Employee does not complete their re-certification as required and must complete their full certification, the Employee shall cover the difference in costs between the full certification and re-certification.
