Last month, Alberta Mediation Services published their September 2025 Bargaining Update, which included a new collective agreement for Rexall Pharmacies workers in Calgary.
Based out of Ontario, Rexall Pharmacies ULC, also known as Rexall Pharma Pus Pharmacies, has roughly 400 locations across the country, including 17 outpatient locations at Calgary hospitals.
While researching for this story, I noticed that the pharmacy chain, which is owned by Birch Hill Equity Partners as of last year, also completed a deal with about 3 dozen workers employed at the University of Alberta.
The most recent collective agreement for the U of A workers expired in December 2023, while the one for Calgary workers expired last December. Both collective agreements were ratified this past July, which means a year and half for the former and 6 months for the latter.
Both of the new agreements expire in 2028: U of A’s in May and Calgary’s in December. Luckily, the Calgary workers will receive a seamless continuation from their previous contract and their new one.
The U of A workers, however, end up with 5 months of work without coverage, considering their new contract did not take effect until May 2024. Technically, under Alberta law, they operated under their old contract while negotiating their new one, but any changes their new one introduces will not be retroactive to the end of their previous one.
The Health Sciences Association of Alberta represents workers in Calgary hospital locations and at the U of A locations.
Workers in both groups will receive wage increases in their new collective agreements; however, the Calgary workers fare better, as shown below.
| 21 December 2024 | 4.00% |
| 21 December 2025 | 3.50% |
| 21 December 2026 | 3.00% |
| 21 December 2027 | 3.00% |
And the U of A workers:
| 1 May 2024 | 2.00% |
| 1 May 2025 | 2.50% |
| 1 May 2026 | 2.50% |
| 1 May 2027 | 3.50% |
This comes to a combined increase of 13.5% for the Calgary workers and 10.5% for the U of A workers. As well, full-time workers with both groups were supposed to get a $500 one-time lump sum payment each, and part-time workers $250.
Oh, and I should point out that the top rate for all positions (pharmacist, pharmacy technician, and pharmacy assistant) at the U of A locations were to get an additional 2% increase last December.
For Calgary workers, starting hourly wages at the end of the new contract will have increased to $54.68 for pharmacists, $32.60 for pharmacy technicians, $19.53 for pharmacy assistants, and $17.13 for sales clerks.
Starting hourly wages for the workers at the U of A locations will have increased to $54.47 for pharmacists, $32.50 for pharmacy technicians, and $19.46 for pharmacy assistants.
Here are some highlights of benefits these workers will receive in their new collective agreements.
Calgary workers
For Calgary workers, the following definitions were added to the collective agreement:
“Standard bi-weekly hours” for a full-time Employee means an average of 80 hours in a pay period as defined by the Employer’s current pay cycle.
“Standard bi-weekly hours” for a part-time Employee means an average of 16 to 56 hours in a pay period as defined by the Employer’s current pay cycle, and is set based on the agreed upon continuous hours of work upon hire.
The following clauses were added into the section covering discrimination:
If workplace violence or harassment has occurred, the Employer, the Union and Employee(s) shall take appropriate action to ensure it ceases.
If the Employer fails to address workplace discrimination, workplace violence and/or harassment the concern may be resolved through the grievance and arbitration process.
On-call pay has increased from $3.25 an hour to $3.50 an hour for regularly scheduled days of work.
Supervisory responsibility pay for pharmacy technicians has increased from $1.50 an hour to $2 an hour.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was added to the list of named holidays, bringing the total of named holidays to 12.
Doctor’s note reimbursement has increased from a maximum of $25 to a maximum of $50.
New job postings for part-time positions must now include standard biweekly hours.
Special leave has been renamed personal leave. It is still 4 days, but it cannot be carried over into the following year. Carryover was unspecified in the previous contract.
Legal guardians and parents-in-law have been added to the list of immediate family members for the purposes of bereavement leave, which is 5 days. Previously, they were included in the list of family members for whom workers would get only 3 days.
In the previous collective agreement, maternity leave and parental leave were provided “as set out in the Alberta Employment Standards Code. Now they have specific parameters in the new agreement.
Maternity leave has a maximum of 16 weeks, is effective as of 13 weeks prior to the due date, will be unpaid, and is available to anyone who has been employed for 90 days. It will also cover miscarriages and still births.
Parental leave is a maximum of 62 weeks and will also be unpaid and available to workers who have been employed for 90 days. It covers birth and adoption and must end within 78 weeks from the date of birth or adoption.
Domestic violence leave has been added to the collective agreement. It is a maximum of 10 days.
Finally, language throughout the agreement was edited to be more gender inclusive (they instead of she, for example).
U of A workers
The following clause was added to the section on discrimination:
The Employer, the Union and Employees recognize a joint responsibility to provide respectful, secure and supportive work environments for all individuals. The Employer will maintain policies in support of these principles.
The weekend shift premium has increased from $2.25 an hour to $3.25 an hour.
A limit of 40 hours has been placed on vacation time that has been carried over into a subsequent year. Plus carried over vacation time must be taken by 1 September of that subsequent year, or it will be paid out.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was added to the list of named holidays, bringing the total of named holidays to 12.
Parents-in-law have been added to the list of immediate family members for the purposes of bereavement leave, which is 5 days. Previously, they were included in the list of family members for whom workers would get only 3 days.
As well, in the event of the death of an aunt, uncle, or nibling, workers can take up to 1 day of bereavement leave, something that was not in the previous agreement.
