Alberta’s Public Service Salary Restraint Act establishes the terms of employment for employees covered by the Government of Alberta–Alberta Union of Provincial Employees collective agreement if the parties do not reach a new agreement by the statutory deadline. It extends the expired agreement through March 31, 2017, freezes rates for two years, then permits 1% increases in each of the following two years.
The Act also provides a one-time payment of $875 to eligible full-time employees, with prorated amounts for part-time and wage employees. It removes the parties from the dispute-resolution provisions of the Public Service Employee Relations Act for purposes of entering a new agreement, including terminating proceedings already underway.
At a Glance
What It Does
If no new collective agreement is reached by the applicable deadline, the Act extends the prior agreement from April 1, 2013, through March 31, 2017. It sets pay increases at 0% in the first two years and 1% in each of the next two years, and authorizes a lump-sum payment of $875 for eligible full-time employees.
Who It Affects
The Act directly affects the Crown in right of Alberta and employees represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, including full-time, part-time and wage employees covered by the former agreement. It also affects union bargaining officials, arbitration boards and the Public Service Commissioner.
Why It Matters
The Act shifts unresolved compensation terms from collective bargaining into legislation and gives the statute priority over conflicting provisions of the Public Service Employee Relations Act. That approach preserves the existing agreement’s framework while materially narrowing the parties’ ability to use the ordinary statutory dispute process.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The Act operates as a fallback if the Alberta government and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees fail to sign a new collective agreement by the deadline defined in the legislation. The default deadline is January 31, 2014, although the Lieutenant Governor in Council may extend it to March 31, 2014 where it considers the extension necessary or desirable in the public interest.
If the parties miss that deadline, the May 17, 2011 collective agreement, including amendments made before the Act comes into force, remains in effect for four years covering the periods from April 1, 2013, through March 31, 2017.
The statute fixes the compensation schedule rather than leaving it to further negotiation. It leaves rates unchanged during the first year, April 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014, and the second year, April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015.
It then increases the former agreement’s rates by 1% for the third year and another 1% for the fourth year. The Act also updates the agreement’s term provision so that the agreement runs through March 31, 2017.Employees receive a separate one-time payment after April 1, 2014, as soon as practicable.
The statute sets the full-time amount at $875 and leaves the calculation of prorated amounts for part-time and wage employees to a written ministerial direction. Employees receiving workers’ compensation or long-term disability benefits, taking parental, adoption or maternity leave, or taking certain longstanding leaves on April 1, 2014, do not qualify.
The payment remains subject to lawful deductions but does not attract union-dues deductions or remittances.The Act also changes the legal route for resolving the dispute. Division 2 of Part 6 of the Public Service Employee Relations Act does not apply to the parties in connection with entering a new collective agreement, and any proceedings already underway under that division end immediately.
If a compulsory arbitration board already exists, the Crown pays the reasonable expenses and remuneration of its appointees. The Minister may identify additional enactments that will not apply, while the Public Service Commissioner must prepare a revised version of the extended agreement showing the statutory changes.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The fallback agreement covers April 1, 2013, through March 31, 2017, and incorporates amendments made to the former agreement before the Act comes into force.
The statutory compensation schedule is 0% for year 1, 0% for year 2, 1% for year 3 and 1% for year 4.
A full-time employee’s lump-sum payment is $875; part-time and wage employees receive a prorated amount determined under a written ministerial direction.
Employees on specified disability, workers’ compensation, parental, adoption, maternity or qualifying pre-April 1, 2013 leave on April 1, 2014, are excluded from the payment.
The Act ends proceedings under Division 2 of Part 6 of the Public Service Employee Relations Act and makes the Crown responsible for reasonable expenses and remuneration of any existing compulsory arbitration board.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Definitions and statutory time periods
Section 1 identifies the employees, parties and agreements covered by the Act. It defines the former collective agreement as the May 17, 2011 agreement, including prior amendments, and distinguishes full-time, part-time and wage employees by reference to the Master Agreement.
It also establishes the four compensation years and sets the deadline for a new agreement. The ordinary deadline is January 31, 2014, but the Lieutenant Governor in Council may extend it to March 31, 2014 in the public interest. That executive extension determines when the statutory fallback is triggered.
Four-year extension and wage schedule
Section 2 extends the former collective agreement if the parties miss the applicable deadline. The extension runs from April 1, 2013, to March 31, 2017, and changes the rates of pay to a fixed schedule: no increase in the first two years followed by 1% increases in each of the final two years.
The provision also preserves the agreement’s other terms unless the Act changes them and makes eligible employees entitled to the separate lump-sum payment. It effectively supplies the economic terms of a collective agreement without requiring a new negotiated instrument.
Lump-sum payment and exclusions
Section 3 sets the payment for a full-time employee at $875 and directs the Minister to determine the prorated amount for part-time and wage employees. The payment must be made as soon after April 1, 2014, as practicable and remains subject to lawful deductions.
Eligibility turns on the employee’s status on April 1, 2014. The section excludes employees receiving workers’ compensation or long-term disability benefits and employees on specified parental, adoption, maternity or longstanding leave. It also prevents union dues from being deducted from or remitted on the payment.
Removal of statutory dispute procedures
Section 4 disapplies Division 2 of Part 6 of the Public Service Employee Relations Act for purposes of entering a new collective agreement. It also allows regulations to exclude other enactments from applying to the bargaining process.
Any proceedings already underway under the specified division terminate immediately. Where a compulsory arbitration board has already been established, the Crown must pay the reasonable expenses and remuneration of its members or appointees.
Priority over conflicting legislation
Section 5 gives the Act priority over the Public Service Employee Relations Act and any other enactment to the extent of a conflict or inconsistency. This prevents a conflicting statutory bargaining or dispute-resolution rule from displacing the salary-restraint framework.
Official revised agreement
Section 6 requires the Public Service Commissioner to prepare and provide AUPE with a revised version of the former collective agreement if the statutory extension takes effect. The revised document must reflect the extended term, new wage schedule and other changes made by section 2.
The provision creates an administrative record of the legislated modifications, rather than leaving employers and employees to reconstruct how the old agreement has been altered.
Ministerial regulation-making power
Section 7 authorizes the Minister to identify additional enactments that will not apply to the parties’ attempt to enter a new agreement. The Minister may also define undefined terms and make regulations considered necessary or advisable to carry out the Act’s purpose.
Because the section permits further exclusions from the ordinary statutory framework, the Act’s practical bargaining rules may depend partly on regulations made after enactment.
Repeal on proclamation
Section 8 provides that the Act is repealed on proclamation. The repeal mechanism is separate from the four-year agreement term: the text does not itself specify a repeal date or state that repeal automatically cancels rights or obligations created during the Act’s operation.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Alberta public-service employees who remain eligible for the lump-sum payment receive a defined payment even though the parties do not conclude a new agreement.
- The Alberta government gains a predictable four-year compensation structure and greater control over payroll growth during the covered period.
- Managers and payroll administrators receive a statutory wage schedule and a legislated agreement term instead of waiting for unresolved bargaining to produce an operative framework.
- Employees and administrators who need an authoritative version of the governing terms benefit from the Public Service Commissioner’s required revised agreement.
Who Bears the Cost
- The Alberta government bears the direct cost of the lump-sum payments, the scheduled wage increases and any expenses or remuneration owed to an existing compulsory arbitration board.
- AUPE and its represented employees lose access to the specified statutory dispute process for negotiating a new collective agreement, reducing the union’s available bargaining mechanisms.
- Part-time and wage employees face uncertainty because the Act fixes only the full-time payment and delegates the prorating method to a ministerial written direction.
- Employees excluded because of specified leave or benefit status receive no lump-sum payment, even though they fall within the broader employee group covered by the former agreement.
- The Public Service Commissioner must prepare and deliver a revised agreement, creating an administrative workload tied to the legislated changes.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The Act resolves uncertainty over public-service compensation by imposing a predictable wage path, but it does so by limiting the bargaining and dispute-resolution tools normally available to the parties. The trade-off is between fiscal control and market responsiveness on one side, and collective bargaining autonomy and workforce flexibility on the other.
The Act’s central implementation question is how its statutory fallback interacts with bargaining that may already be underway. The trigger depends on whether the parties sign a qualifying agreement by the applicable date, while section 4 separately terminates proceedings under the specified dispute-resolution regime.
That combination creates a clean statutory endpoint for one process but may leave practical questions about negotiations, claims or rights arising outside that process.
The payment rules also contain meaningful administrative discretion and boundary cases. The statute fixes the full-time amount but delegates prorating for part-time and wage employees to a ministerial direction, without stating the formula in the Act.
Eligibility depends on a snapshot date and distinguishes among several types of leave, which may require payroll and human-resources officials to classify employees under agreement provisions that the Act incorporates by reference.
Finally, the legislation prioritizes fiscal predictability over negotiated flexibility. Extending the former agreement preserves existing workplace rules, but the fixed wage schedule may not respond to inflation, recruitment pressures or changes in comparable provincial labour markets.
The broad regulation-making and conflict provisions give the executive additional room to manage implementation, while making the final compliance picture less self-contained in the statute itself.
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