Union Response to City & EPS Emails to Members

Posted 10/26/2023


Our response to Michelle Plouffe (Chief People Officer and City Solicitor, City of Edmonton) and Justin Krikler (Chief Administrative Officer, Edmonton Police Service)

Both Ms. Plouffe and Mr. Krikler offered some facts in their October 24, 2023 emails to CSU 52 employees that your Bargaining Team would like to address.

Hours of Work

Subsequent to the last Collective Agreement, the City of Edmonton exercised their right to move all employees (excluding Edmonton Police Service) to 40 hours per week.

City of Edmonton (COE)

  • The membership ultimately decided to accept a compromise of 36.9 hours per week. Many members describe their decision as being made under duress as the City made it very clear that if not 36.9 hours then 40 hours. Members were trying to mitigate and protect their work life balance.
  • The use of the article to move everyone to 40 hours was a “gotcha” as that language was created to assist the City during construction season. The members’ work hours would align with the Contractors and their earnings would increase along with the extra hours worked. It was not meant to apply across all areas.
  • The language itself was broken as it created two different hourly rates for positions doing identical work. That does not make sense!
  • The City knew the impact to hourly wages when calculating their economic package.

Edmonton Police Service (EPS)

  • This move was for City of Edmonton members and does not apply to the membership at EPS.
  • The change in hours of work will apply to all CSU 52 members in the COE with the majority of workers moving to 36.9 hours when Enterprise Commons is operational.
  • Any EPS CSU 52 member that moves to a 40-hour work week for operational reasons will make less per hour in 2023 than they did in 2018.

Wages

  • CSU 52 was not at the table with the other Unions that accepted the economic package of 0% for 2021, 1% for 2022, and 2% for 2023. The current offer combined with the 0% increases in 2019 and 2020 result in an increase of 3% over 5 years. Inflation over this same period of time is 16.37% (Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator). Unacceptable! The recent Edmonton Police Association deal of 1.5% for 2021, 3% for 2022, and 2.5% for 2023, along with the increased benefit would still leave us far behind inflation. Remember, the EPA received 1.5% in 2019 and 1.5% in 2020.
  • The other Unions that accepted the deal did not have their hours of work increased nor did they take the corresponding lower hourly rate associated with the increased hours.
  • CSU 52 economic increases in 2019/2020 = 0%
  • City’s proposed economic increase for 2021/2022/2023 = 3%

COE

  • Moving from 33.75 hours to 36.9 hours or 40 hours weekly results in a 3.1% or 5.5% decrease in the hourly rate. Calculations follow.
  • A move to 36.9 hours equals a 0.1% hourly rollback compared to 2018.
  • A move to 40 hours equals a 2.5% hourly rollback compared to 2018.

EPS

  • Moving from 33.75 hours to 40 hours weekly results in a 5.5% decrease in the hourly rate. Calculations follow.
  • A move to 40 hours equals a 2.5% hourly rollback compared to 2018.

The membership would be making less per hour than they did in 2018.

The only reason members make more per year is that the percentage decrease in their hourly rate is offset by a greater percentage increase in hours worked.

Simply stated, members will make more because they work more.

CSU 52 is also committed to reaching a fair and equitable agreement for the membership, the City, and taxpayers. Fair does not mean less than market or inflation. We will continue to work towards this goal in mediation.


In Solidarity,

Your CSU 52 City Bargaining Team:
Pierre Blanchette, Tracy Foran, Jared Cutting, Joe Childs, Amanda Pickett



Rollback Calculation Using the Clerk III Classification

From the current collective agreement:

Clerk III (33.75 hours)

  • Annually - $59,485.63
  • Hourly - $33.765

Clerk III (40.0 hours)

  • Annually - $66,626.86
  • Hourly - $31.909

$33.765 – $31.909 = $1.856 hourly decrease

$1.856 / 33.765 = 0.055 or 5.5% decrease in the hourly rate


Clerk III (36.9 hours)

The 40-hour workers receive a 12% increase in their annual 33.75-hour salary for moving from 33.75 to 40 hours and a 18.5% increase in hours worked.

The 36.9-hour workers receive a 6% increase in their annual salary for moving from 33.75 hours to 36.9 hours and a 9.3% increase in hours worked.

Annual earnings with the 6% increase: $59,485.16 x 1.06 = $63,054.27 annually

Hours worked: 26.1 biweekly pay periods x 73.8 = 1926.18 hours worked

Hourly rate: $63,054.27 / 1926.18 = $32.735 per hour


$33.765 - $32.735 = $1.03

$1.03 / 33.765 = 0.031 or 3.1% decrease