While browsing through the collective bargaining agreement database on the Government of Alberta website, I noticed a new contract for housing workers.
These workers are employed by County of Stettler Housing Authority, which provides 3 lodges for independent seniors, with a combined 193 beds. They also provide a facility of self-contained units for seniors, affordable housing units, community housing, and rent supplements.
The 80 or so workers are represented by Local 4733 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and their previous contract had expired at the end of last year. They include kitchen staff, housekeepers, maintenance workers, activity coordinators, and groundkeepers.
This new 3-year contract was settled in September and is retroactive to January 2024.
And what did they get in this contract?
Well, to start, they will get pay increases in each year of the contract.
| 2024 | 3.00% |
| 2025 | 3.00% |
| 2026 | 3.00% |
That’s a combined increase of 9%, or an average annual increase of, well, 3%.
Here’s what their raises looked like in their last contract.
| 2021 | 0.25% |
| 2022 | 0.75% |
| 2023 | 1.00% |
That’s a combined 2% over 3 years, with an annual average of 0.67%.
This new contract is much better, but we have to remember that inflation in 2022 and 2023 was much higher than anyone could have predicted back in 2021, when this contract was settled.
Between January 2020 and January 2023, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 144.7 to 160.5. That’s a jump of 15.8 points, or 10.92%.
When we combine the 2% wage increase over this 3-year period to the 10.92% inflation, these workers were left with a reduction in real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 8.92% coming into negotiations.
A wage increase of 9% over the next three years will be barely enough to cover a shortfall of nearly 9%, but that’s not accounting for the inflation since January 2023, let alone the inflation between now and the end of 2026.
Inflation between January 2023 and January 2024, for example, was 3.36%. That jumps to 6.17% if you include up to this past July. While 9% is significant, these workers will once again, be behind inflation. Actually, they already are, given that they have received only one 3% increase so far, and inflation has been more than that, undoing any improvement to real wages that brought.
Also, keep in mind that some of these workers were still making less than $20 an hour by the end of the previous contract, and the highest salary was just $25.11 an hour. For reference, the average hourly wage in the healthcare and social assistance sector last year was $33.84.
Let’s look at a few other changes between the two contracts.
The new contract has added “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the article on no discrimination.
Workers who have to work two shifts with less than 12 hours between the shifts will be paid at 1.5 times their regular rate of pay on their second and subsequent shifts.
Shift premiums have also increased, as follows:
| Old | New | |
|---|---|---|
| Evening shift | $1.50 | $2.00 |
| Night shift | $2.00 | $2.50 |
| Weekend shift | $1.75 | $2.25 |
| Evening/night by self | $4.75 | $5.50 |
| Head housekeeper | $2.00 | $2.50 |
| On-call, weekday | $1.75 | $2.25 |
| On-call, weekend | $2.00 | $2.50 |
Workers are entitled to 1 meal and 2 snacks per day when on shift, at the facility where they are working, and it has to be the same food being served to the residents. In the last contract, the benefit was at a cost of $4.00 at the start of the contract and at $4.50 by the end of the contract. It has increased to $5.00 in the new contract, where it will remain for the duration of the contact.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation has been added to the list of named holidays, for which workers are entitled to holiday pay.
The health spending account for permanent part-time workers will increase from $850 a year to $900 this year, followed by $50 increases in each of the final two years of the agreement.
