Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the April 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In April, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 20 private sector and 19 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 990 and 43,727 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 6 workers employed by Hardisty Care Centre Ltd.
Also operating as Hardisty Care Centre Partnership, the employer operates a 175-bed care centre in Edmonton that is owned by Park Place Seniors Living, which itself is based out of British Columbia.
The workers are represented by Local 234 of the United Nurses of Alberta. They include all those working in a paramedical professional or technical capacity, such as recreational therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and social workers.
Their previous contract expired in March 2019. Their new contract was ratified this past November.
This contract runs from the April 2019 until the end of March 2024, which means that it had expired by the time it was ratified, and these workers are once again working on a new contract.
To make matters worse, the employer gave these workers 4 years of wage freezes in their latest contract.
| 1 April 2019 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2023 | 2.00% |
| 8 November 2024 | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2025 | 2.50% |
It’s kind of weird to put in a wage increase for January 2025, which is nearly a year after the expiry date.
Regardless, the workers can expect to see a combined increase of 4% over the length of the contract, 6.5% if you include the raise after the expiration date. This works out to an average of just 0.8% (1.3%) per year.
Meanwhile, between April 20189 and April 2025, the consumer price index in Alberta, rose 30.5 points from 140.6 to 171.1. That’s a 21.69% increase.
So, this employer gave these workers a 6.5% raise for a period that saw inflation almost hit 22%. Inflation grew more than 3 times as quickly as their wage increases. That’s ridiculous.
In fact, the collective agreement specifically says that “this Collective Agreement shall be in force and effect from after April 1, 2019, or the date upon which the United Nurses of Alberta and the Employer exchange notice of ratification by their principles of the terms of this Collective Agreement, whichever is later”.
So, there was a clause built in that encourages the employer to drag their feet on bargaining. Plus, there’s a second clause in the new contract that discourages the employer from beginning bargaining on a new contract.
1.02 This Collective Agreement shall continue in force and effect until a new Collective Agreement has been executed or until the right to strike or lockout arises.
Here are some highlights of other things that have changed in this new contract.
Permanent workers have been reclassified as regular workers.
In the previous collective agreement, one of the definitions of temporary workers was those working for a full-time or part-time positions for a fixed term of between 3 and 12 months. That’s been expanded to include fixed terms of up to 18 months.
Workers who sit on the bargaining committee shall be entitled to leave that is reasonable. This was not listed in the previous contract.
That anti-discrimination article now includes political belief has something a worker cannot be discriminated against. As have gender identity and gender expression.
Reporting pay for workers who show up for a scheduled shift but then is told they’re not needed that day has increased from 3 hours at base pay to 4 hours at base pay.
When the employer provides probationary workers with their performance review prior to the expiration of their probation, they must include any deficiencies in the worker’s behaviour and provide them with an opportunity to correct them.
The first 3 shifts of every probationary worker will be under guidance or supervision, something that was missing from the previous agreement.
The previous contract indicated that every worker was to have a 2-year evaluation. The new contract says that the employer shall now only “strive” to provide an evaluation every 2 years. However, it also indicates that if an evaluation isn’t completed, it’ll be interpreted as meaning the worker has met expectations.
In the event of a layoff, the employer has agreed to pay 75% of health, dental, and life insurance benefits for up to 3 months. Previously, it was 50%.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation has been added to the list of named holidays, which are used to determine stat holiday pay. This brings the total number of holidays on the list to 12.
Part-time, temporary, and casual workers will be paid a premium of 5% of their basic pay rate in lieu of the named holiday, up from 4.4% in the previous contract.
Sick leave has increased from a maximum accumulation of 60 days to a maximum of 75 days.
The following was added to the collective agreement:
Should an Employee on vacation suffer an illness or injury which results in their hospitalization the Employee shall be considered as being on sick leave for that period of hospitalization provided the Employee notifies the Employer upon return from vacation and provides satisfactory proof of hospitalization and its duration. Vacation time not taken shall be rescheduled to a mutually agreeable time.
Health benefits has changed from a 50–50% share between employer and worker to 75–25%. Same goes for dental benefits.
Maternity leave has been changed from a maximum of 53 weeks to a maximum of 18 months.
The maximum for parental leave has changed from 37 weeks to 18 months. The requirement that parental leave be taken within 53 weeks of the birth/adoption has been removed from the collective agreement.
Workers can request that disciplinary action be removed from their file after 18 months from the date of start of the disciplinary action. It used to be 24 months.
Finally, language has been changed throughout the document to make it more gender inclusive (using their instead of her or his, for example).
