At the end of last month, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta posted an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by the Good Samaritan Society.
Good Samaritan Society, together with Good Samaritan Canada, provides care homes and programmes that serve over 7,000 individuals across Alberta and British Columbia.
HSAA represents roughly 2 dozen paramedical techncial and professional healthcare workers at the organization’s Mill Woods Centre, Southgate Care Centre, and Gerald Zetter Care Centre, as well as their Choice Programme.
These workers include dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, recreational therapists, and respiratory therapists.
Their most recent collective agreement expired over 2 years ago, in March 2024. That agreement was a 4-year agreement, so if a replacement agreement ends up being for 4 years, it would already be more than half over.
Despite negotiating for over 2 years, these workers still have no new contract, which means no wage increase since their last one in April 2023.
Here is a look at wage increases in the last two collective agreements.
| 1 April 2017 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2019 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 October 2021 | 1.00% |
| 1 April 2022 | 1.25% |
| 1 April 2023 | 2.00% |
| 4.25% |
Four years of wage freezes followed by below-inflation wage increases.
Compare that to how much inflation increased during the same period. In April 2016, the consumer price index in Alberta sat at 135.1 points. 7 years later, in April 2023, it has risen to 163.7 points. That is an increase of 28.6 points, or 21.17%.
Given that inflation was 21.17% during their last two collective agreements yet their wages increased just 4.25%, these workers were left with a cut to real wages of 16.92% heading into negotiations.
The bargaining team for these workers—which includes a social worker and a dietician—originally proposed a 12% wage increase when they met with the employer this past January to begin negotiations on monetary items.
Unfortunately—yet unsurprisingly—Good Samaritan Society rejected that proposal and proposed something “well below our expectations”.
A 12% wage increase falls short of the nearly 17% these workers need just to catch up to inflation, but it is similar to what other public sector workers have been receiving in their new contracts over the last year and a half.
And remember, 17% is just what they need to catch up to 2023. It would not cover inflation over the course of their new collective agreement. Inflation since their last wage increase in April 2023 has already hit 8.86%.
Honestly, these workers will probably need something closer to 30% to catch up to lost wages and cover inflation until 2028.
According to last month’s update, the employer also “did not provide meaningful responses” to benefits, professional development, severance, preceptor premiums, and long-service pay.
The two parties met in June and July for informal mediation, but they were unable to sign off on any of of the outstanding items. According to the bargaining committee that the workers had democratically elected, “the employer was not prepared to seriously respond to your committee’s proposals”.
As a result, the workers’ bargaining committee is moving to formal mediation.
This will likely result in a mediator’s recommendation, which the bargaining committee would bring back to the workers to vote on, but that likely would not happen until the autumn.
