Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by Emcon Services.
The company is the largest road maintenance contractor in Canada, and they are responsible for maintaining 40% of Alberta’s highway network, which includes about 12,000 lane kilometres of highways Athabasca, Stony Plain, Fort McMurray, Vermillion, and Hanna districts.
Emcon employs roughly 500 workers throughout Alberta who are members of AUPE. They include equipment operators, heavy equipment mechanics, and labourers.
According to the collective bargaining agreement database managed by provincial government’s Mediation Services department, the most recent contract between Emcon and the roughly 500 workers they employ expired at the end of October 2024.
Bargaining, however, began only at the beginning of October, just weeks before it expired. A year later, and the two parties are still negotiating.
The bargaining team representing the workers originally proposed a 26% wage increase: 13% in the first year, followed by two years of 6.5% each.
Emcon responded with a 1.7% increase in each year of the proposed 3-year agreement. That works out to 5.1% over the life of the contract, 5.19% if you account for compound increases.
That is a big gap.
This past October, a year later, Emcon increased their offer to 17%, but it has to be spread out over 5 years, increasing the annual average from 1.7% to 3.4%. That is double what they originally asked for, but less than the annual average increase of 8.67% that the workers asked for.
The workers’ bargaining team agreed to a 17% raise over the life of the contract, significantly lower than their original ask of 26%. However, they wanted a collective agreement of 4 years, longer than their original 3-year proposal but shorter than the 5 years that Emcon asked for. This would raise the annual average to 4.25%.
Plus, they wanted the first increase to be retroactive to November 2024, not April 2025, which is what the employer wanted.
Emcon told the workers that they were not willing to make any more concessions, that their last offer was their final offer. As a result, AUPE applied for mediation.
Their update from last week outlines the mediator’s recommendations, as well as a tentative agreement.
Alan Konkin, the mediator, recommended scaling the contract back to 3 years, with the following wage increases:
| 1 April 2025 | 4.50% |
| 1 April 2026 | 3.50% |
| 1 April 2027 | 3.50% |
That is a combined 11.5%, or 11.94% if we account for compounding increases, working out to an annual average of 3.83% (3.98%). That average is higher than Emcon’s revised proposal but lower than the 8.67% average the workers originally asked for.
Konkin has recommend 3 new clauses regarding overtime.
Where an Employee has received a minimum of 8 consecutive hours of rest prior to commencing work, overtime shall be deemed continuous once triggered and shall continue until the work is completed or until a maximum of 15 consecutive hours is reached.
Where an Employee works fewer than 10 hours in a day and is required to return to work without having received a minimum of 8 consecutive hours of rest, all hours worked in that day prior
to the commencement of the rest period shall be included for the purpose of calculating overtime. In such circumstances, the work shall be considered continuous, and overtime shall apply until the work is completed or a maximum of 15 consecutive hours is reached.
Where an Employee does receive a minimum of 8 consecutive hours of rest, such rest period shall break continuity, and the calculation of hours for the purpose of overtime eligibility shall reset upon the commencement of the next shift.
As well, Konkin has proposed increasing the boot allowance from $100 a year to $125.
Here are changes that Emcon and the workers’ bargaining team were able to agree on.
Family illness leave would change from 2 days unpaid leave to 1 day paid and 2 day unpaid.
The tentative agreement includes the following new clause:
The Employer shall ensure that Employees have access to toilet facilities and shall advise Employees at the start of each shift where the toilet facilities are located.
Vision care coverage would increase from $300 every 2 years to $400, and eye exam coverage would increase from $75 per year to $100.
The following allowance increases have been proposed.
| Old | New | Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool | $119.75 | $300 | Annually |
| Meal | $50 | $55 | Daily |
| Phone | $10 | $20 | Monthly |
New hourly premiums have been introduced in the tentative agreement:
| Class 1 | $1.50 |
| Grader and excavator operator: | $1.50 |
| Lead hand | $1.50 |
| Mobile crew lead | $1.50 |
Finally, the tentative agreement would allow seasonal workers who have been with Emcon for 36 months to become regular workers.
Voting on the tentative agreement began last Friday and will end at 17:00 tomorrow.
