Legal Aid workers to vote on mediated agreement

Earlier this week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by Legal Aid Society.

AUPE represents about 70 workers employed by Legal Aid Society, a publicly-funded non-profit organization providing legal representation to low-income Albertans.

These workers include administrative support, assessment officers, certificate and tariff officers, financial analysts, computer technicians, intake officers, and resource developers.

Their most recent collective agreement expired in March 2024, about a year and a half ago. Bargaining did not begin, however, until last June, 3 months later.

By the time this past January came around, bargaining on just the non-monetary items (such as working from home) still had not been agreed to. In fact, it was not until April of this year that they finally put monetary items—including wages—on the table.

In their wage proposal, the employer offered 7.5% over 4 years, which is less than 2% a year. In the two years since these workers received their last raise (in September 2023), inflation has already increased 3.98%.

Keep in mind that these workers have received 6 years of wage freeze in a row since 2017, followed by a measly 2.75% in 2023.

1 April 2017	0.00%
1 April 2018	0.00%
1 April 2019	0.00%
1 April 2020	0.00%
1 April 2021	0.00%
1 April 2022	0.00%
1 January 2023	1.25%
1 Seeptember 2023	1.50%

Inflation during the same period was 21.17%. A raise of just 2.75% left these workers with a cut to real wages of 18.42%.

There is no way their proposal of 7.5% will cover that loss. It will not even cover half of it.

Remember, that 7.5% would be over 4 years, which means 4 more years of inflation, too, so it would have even less of an effect on their lost wages.

This is why the workers’ bargaining table proposed an increase of 13% in the first year of a 3-year contract. It, too, would not eliminate the 18.42% cut to real wages, but it take out a huge chunk of it. Plus, that would be followed by 6.5% in the second year and 6.5% in the final year. This should have been enough to cover the lost wages and keep up with inflation during the new contract.

The bargaining team for Legal Aid had no desire to negotiation, however. They came to April’s bargaining meeting, presented their wage proposals, then immediately said they wanted to informal mediation.

And when the worker’s bargaining team responded by saying they wanted to negotiate on the offer, the bargaining team for the employer simply walked out of the room.

In Alberta, negotiations can go into informal mediation only if both parties agree to it. The workers’ bargaining team refused, saying they were willing to continue bargaining or go to formal mediation.

The following month, Alberta Mediation Services assigned Deborah Howes as the mediator.

After meeting with the two parties—which finished earlier this month—Howes assessed their positions and compiled recommendations for terms of settlement.

Here are some of those recommendations, starting with wage increases, the first two of which are retroactive.

1 April 2024	3.00%
1 April 2025	3.00%
1 April 2026	3.00%
1 April 2027	3.00%

That is a combined increase of 12%, or 12.55% if you account for compound increases. This is 4.5 percentage points higher than what Legal Aid Society had proposed by 13.5 points lower than the workers’ offer.

So, it is not really a middle-of-the-road compromise. It is better than what they got in either of their previous to contracts though, by a long shot, and pretty much in line with what a lot of other public sector workers have received this year.

The mediator also recommended the bottom two steps in the wage grid of each classification. That means anyone in those two steps would get an immediate increase, in addition to the 6% in retroactive wages.

As well, the existing long service increment would become the new top step, and anyone working with Legal Aid Society for 20 years would get an additional 2%.

Howes has recommended combining the health spending account and the wellness account into a flexible health spending account. The health spending account was $800 per year. The combined account is $1200 a year, and unused amounts can now be carried over for one year. Also, workers can determine how much to allocate to health and to wellness.

Vacation leave will remain as fiscal year. Legal Aid had wanted to change it to calendar year.

Workers who have been with Legal Aid Society for at least 2 years will now get 72.5 hours of paid casual illness leave, if the recommendations are ratified. It ws 70 hours in the previous agreement.

The bargaining team for the workers had proposed shifts for full-time workers being scheduled with consistent start and end times and shift selection being based on seniority. Howes rejected this proposal.

Their bargaining team also wanted to restrict the number of days per month the employer could require workers to be in the office (as compared to working from home). Howes also rejected this proposal.

Bonus days for full-time workers will increase from 2 days per calendar year to 3 days, if ratified. Part-time workers will continue to have their bonus days prorated, based on their full-time equivalency. Full-time workers will also have theirs prorated in their first year of employment, something that was not in the previous agreement.

The mediator has added “any holiday proclaimed” by provincial or federal governments to the collective agreement. This would include the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, for example.

With the new recommendations, workers can allocate registered savings plan contributions to other options, such as a tax-free savings account.

Mileage has been increased from 50¢ a kilometre to 60¢ a kilometre for workers who must use their own vehicle for work.

The employee–management advisory committee will now consist of 8 members: 4 worker representatives and 4 employer representatives. Previously, it was 6 members: 3 from the workers, 2 from the employer, and an AUPE rep.

The ratification vote begins today and will run until 23:59 on 6 November.

Considering that 90% of these workers recently indicated a willingness to strike for improvements to their collective agreement, it will be interesting to see if Howes’ recommendations will be sufficient to avoid that potential strike.