Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta v International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 424, 2015 CanLII 72264 (AB GAA)

The parties were seeking to renew the terms of the General Construction Electrical Trade collective agreement entered into under Alberta’s construction registration system. The parties came to arbitration with 17 items in dispute. The Union argued that its inability to take strike action, as a trade, and unrestrained by framework bargaining or the position of other trades, reduced its bargaining power. The Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta ("ECAA") submitted that each of the contractors operated in a highly competitive market where industrial construction work was almost always awarded on the basis of a competitive tendering process. It argued that the competition was increasingly with contractors not covered by the ECAA agreement. Acted for the Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta. They requested that the Tribunal revise supervisor premiums, and reduce the current level of pension contributions for apprentices. The ECAA also sought that a clause pertaining to "name hiring" supervisors without Union submissions to be added to Article 4. The ECAA sought to improve its contractor’s ability to recover overpaid wages from employees following payroll errors. The ECAA, as a result of its inability to get the Joint Education and Apprenticeship Committee to agree to absorb additional contractor costs, proposed to add an arbitration mechanism to break any impasse on an issue that arises in front of the JEAC. Finally, the ECAA sought a provision requiring employees to possess current certification for Fall Protection and Aerial Work Platform training. The underlying issue was whether it was the Union, through the Safety Fund, or each Employer, that should bear the cost of that training. The tribunal did not grant the request to revise supervisor premiums. With respect to pension contributions, the Tribunal held that for the first year of an apprenticeship, the pension contributions would be zero. For the second year they would be at a 50% rate. Thereafter pension contributions wound not be prorated. For name hiring supervisors, the Tribunal awarded the clause as proposed by the ECAA. The ECAA was awarded the proposal to adjust an Article to improve its contractor’s ability to recover overpaid wages from employees following payroll errors. For the arbitration mechanism, the Tribunal left it to the parties to craft suitable language to achieve the but reserved jurisdiction to reduce the award to specific language should they be unable to do so themselves. For Fall Protection and Aerial Work Platform training, the Tribunal left it to the parties to craft a suitable clause based on the award but reserved jurisdiction to settle the final language, if necessary.