Arbitral award is finally in...

DEAR AJC MEMBERS - after an excessively long wait we finally received the decision from the chair of our conciliation panel.
 
The decision was sent to us moments ago but, as promised, we are sharing it with you, immediately and in its entirety, before any analysis has been done.

We can however state unequivocally how disappointed we are with the decision.

You can read the Chair of the conciliation panel´s award here.

In the coming days, we will work on a considered analysis that will be sent to all members and will be posted to the AJC website.  

We are also working on an FAQ.  If you have questions about the award that you´d like answered, please direct them to mpaquette@ajc-ajj.com . This will help us ensure that we target the information you need and want in our analysis.  

If further discussion with the membership is required, we may also set up virtual or actual physical town halls.  It is too early to tell.

Here are some of the questions we can answer right away:
 
1.            The hard numbers: On salary, we were awarded a 1.25% increase in year 1, and 1.25% increase in year 2, a 1.25% increase in year 3, preceded by a market adjustment of an additional 1%, and an 1.25% increase in year 4. These increases apply across the board for all LP levels and are cumulative.
 
2.            For retiring or retired members: We have received a number of inquiries about whether a retroactive pay adjustments arising from a binding conciliation award will apply to retirees.  Article 15.03(b) of the past collective agreement indicates that retroactive pay applies "to lawyers, former lawyers or in the case of death, the estates of former lawyers who were in the Law bargaining unit during the retroactive period."    Neither party during the binding conciliation process proposed a change to this section.  Accordingly, it is expected that former lawyers will continue to benefit from any retroactive wage adjustments arising from the binding conciliation award.
 
3.            Implementation: The employer will have 120 days from today to implement the conditions set out in the arbitral award, including retro pay. We do not have any control over whether retro pay is paid out in a lump sum, or paid on the same week as your regular pay.  Retro pay is taxable income and will be taxed at source and reported on your T4.  
 
4.            Next steps: Now that we have the arbitral award, we can begin the next round of negotiating towards a new collective agreement and our counsel will be filling a notice to bargain.  Your Negotiations Team has already started working on an Input Call Survey to seek your direction on the team´s priorities, which we will have to refine to reflect the new award.
 
We regret the errors in the previous versions of the communique sent to you moments ago.  Please be patient with us.  We tried to get the raw information in your hands as quickly as possible, before we have had a chance to absorb it ourselves.