Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their final new applications report of February 2024.
In the report was an application filed on 13 February 2024 by Canadian Energy Workers Association on behalf of nearly 70 workers employed by Canadian Utilities Inc, which is a subsidiary of ATCO Gas.
The application summary in the ALRB report was pretty sparse in details, so I reached out to Christine Robinson, a business manager with CEWA, who provided me with a copy of the original application.
According to the letter written by Dan Scott, a partner with the Edmonton-based law firm Seveny Scott, and addressed to Tannis Brown, a director of settlement with the ALRB, the most recent collective agreement between CEWA and Canadian Utilities expired at the end of 2023.
Section 1.02 of the current agreement states that if either the workers or the employer wish to negotiate a new agreement, they must provide notice to the other party between 1 June and 1 September in the final year of the contract.
Scott writes in his letter that the workers, through their union, served a notice to bargain to Canadian Utilities on 1 June, nearly 7 months before the contract expired.
Proposal exchange between the two parties didn’t occur until over 3 months later, on 12 September, and even then, Canadian Utilities refused to provide proposals on monetary issues (such as wages).
Three months later, after meeting a mediator, Canadian Utilities provided more proposals to the workers’ bargaining committee, yet still none of them included compensation.
By the time the contract expired, no new agreement had been reached, and Canadian Utilities had still not presented wage proposals to the union representing the workers.
Now, the focus on wages is important, because there is a unique clause in the contract for these workers regarding the wage schedule, which the company uses to determine how much to pay each worker. This schedule also includes salary increments.
Here’s the clause I was referring to:
NOTES APPLYING TO ALL WAGE SCHEDULES
- When increments are listed in a wage schedule, they are annual increments unless marked with an asterisk (*), in which case they are semi-annual.
- When a salary range is set out for a Job Class, progression through the range will be annual (January) or semi-annual (January and July) to the range ceiling as provided by the particular schedule.
The CEWU, according to Scott’s letter, interprets this to mean that workers “who are not at the maximum salary range [are entitled] to receive either annual or semi-annual wage increments until they achieve the maximum salary range.”
This interpretation is further supported by section 1.04 of the collective agreement.
The terms of this collective agreement will remain in effect and continue to bind the parties while negotiations are in process towards a new agreement and until a new collective agreement is established.
“The effect of the wage increment,” explains the letter, “is to provide annual or semi-annual wage increases to those employees who are not yet at the maximum hourly rate payable under the wage schedule.”
The workers who qualified for these January increases saw them in January 2020, January 2021, January 2022, and January 2023. Without a new collective agreement to say otherwise, the CEWA expected the annual and semiannual increases to once again come into effect in January 2024.
However, as the first pay period of January 2024 drew to a close, Nancy Lewis, a director of human resources with ATCO Gas, emailed Robinson to let her know that the company would not be implementing those wage increases after all.
Hi Christine – just wanted to give the heads up that CU Inc won’t be following the same approach Electric historically has with providing increases Jan 1st without a CA in place. I think they would provide a nominal amount and then do a true up?
I know there wasn’t an expectation from CEWA that we follow that practice necessarily but given that the first pay date is coming up, wanted to confirm with you in the event you get questions from employees. Happy to chat if you have questions, thanks!
You see, while the CEWA was interpreting the collective agreement to mean that the annual and semiannual raises would continue even without a new agreement in place, the employer had other plans in mind.
After delaying negotiations so long that the contract expired, the employer thought that an expired contract means they were free from having to give their workers wages in the new year.
Robinson responded to Lewis’s email reminding her of the CEWA’s interpretation of the contract.
If there is no CBA in place, and no negotiated wage increase there would be no change to employees pay, but if employees are within the wage range they would still receive their increment through the wage range.
Lewis once again reiterated the employer’s interpretation then indicated that they’d be willing to negotiate new rates and making them retroactive, whether or not they ended up being increases.
The CBA is expired so the COLA has not been negotiated and the step rates are also expired/outdated. We will not apply the old step rates (or increments), rather, we will wait for new CBA to process the correct rates at that time, retroactively.
The two reminded each other of their respective interpretations, with Robinson reminding Lewis of the clause from the collective agreement, which I included above.
According to Scott, the union is worried that by the employer withholding the wages, it could undermine their ability effectively bargain on behalf of the workers, as the workers may be willing to settle for a worse contract than they could otherwise get just so they could get wage increases sooner.
The union is accusing Canadian Utilities of violating sections 130(1) and section 147(3) of the Labour Relations Code by refusing to implement the expected wage increases.
130(1) When notice to commence collective bargaining has been served under this Act, a collective agreement that applies to the parties at the time of service of the notice is deemed to continue to apply to the parties, notwithstanding any termination date in the agreement, until
- a new collective agreement is concluded,
- the right of the bargaining agent to represent the employees is terminated, or
- a strike or lockout commences under Division 13.
. . .
147(3) If a notice to commence collective bargaining has been served pursuant to section 59(2), no employer affected by the notice shall, except
- in accordance with an established custom or practice of the employer,
- with the consent of the bargaining agent, or
- (c) in accordance with a collective agreement in effect with respect to the bargaining agent,
alter the rates of pay, a term or condition of employment or a right or privilege of any employee represented by the bargaining agent or of the bargaining agent itself until the right of the bargaining agent to represent the employees is terminated or a strike or lockout commences under Division 13.
CEWA is asking the ALRB to declare that Canadian Utilities has violated these sections of the charter, issue an order for them to stop, and to issue an other to implement the expected increases.
Around 25 workers are affected by this refusal to increase wages, according to Scott’s letter to the ALRB.
A hearing has been set for 22 April, during which time, the ALRB will hear the arguments from both parties regarding the allegations and claims of the application.
The ALRB doesn’t archive their new application reports, so I’ve included a copy of last week’s report below.
