Technical Notes
Information produced by the Workplace Information Directorate is taken from collective agreements encompassing all industrial sectors and jurisdictions in Canada. The construction industry is excluded prior to 1983.Coverage of Working Conditions
The working conditions information on collective bargaining settlements and negotiations pertain to all major bargaining units involving 500 or more employees in all industries and jurisdictions across Canada. In the federal jurisdiction only, the Directorate carries working conditions information pertaining to bargaining units involving 200 or more employees. For the period 2000 to 2004, the Directorate also reported information on a stratified sample of agreements pertaining to bargaining units involving 100 to 499 employees.Coverage of Major Wage Settlements (wage adjustments)
The wage information on collective bargaining settlements and negotiations pertain to all bargaining units involving 500 or more employees in all industries and jurisdictions across Canada. The Directorate monitors approximately 1,070 such agreements covering 2.5 million employees. The employee coverage represents approximately 60 per cent of the unionized workforce. For the period 2000 to 2004, the Directorate also reported information on a stratified sample of agreements pertaining to bargaining units involving 100 to 499 employees.
The Base Rate
The base rate is the lowest paid classification used for qualified employees in the bargaining unit. In most instances, the base rate is the rate of pay for an unskilled or semi-skilled classification of workers. However, this is not the case in contracts covering skilled workers and professional employees.
As only the base rate in a contract is used, the resulting data on percentage change do not necessarily reflect the average wage change for all employees in the bargaining unit. For example, where an across-the-board increase is negotiated for all classifications in cents per hour (or other money terms), measurement on the base rate produces higher results than measurement on any higher rate, including the average rate. Where varying percentage or money increases are negotiated for different classifications, measurement on the base rate may produce results that are higher or lower than measurement on the average rate. Where an across-the-board increase is negotiated for all classifications in percentage terms, measurement on the base rate produces results identical to measurement on any other rate, including the average rate. It should be noted that information on the average rate for all employees in a bargaining unit is not available.
Effective Wage Increase
The effective wage increase is the increase in rates of pay including estimated cost-of-living allowance (COLA) payments. Estimates of the yield of COLA clauses are obtained by quantifying the characteristics of these clauses in each agreement and applying a combination of actual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases available to date plus a specified projected inflation rate for the remainder of the contract duration. In succeeding quarters, these estimates are revised using actual CPI values as they become available.
Currently, an inflation projection of 2.0 per cent has been used when the actual rate is unknown. This figure is based on a rounded average of inflation forecasts and is intended for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute an official forecast by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The use of different inflation rate scenarios could result in varying settlement increases. The inflation projection used will be revised periodically to reflect prevailing economic conditions.
By including reasonable estimates of future payments under COLA clauses, the effective wage increase concept facilitates an accurate comparison of agreements with and without COLA and permits the aggregation of all agreements to yield an improved measure of wage settlements.
Industry Sectors
The Workplace Information Directorate publishes data using the restructured industry sectors devised within the framework of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). NAICS is a classification system devised by the statistical agencies of Canada, Mexico and the United States, to provide common definitions on the industrial structure of the three economies. Using Statistics Canada’s NAICS framework, the 20 larger industry divisions were regrouped into the current 11 industry sectors for analytical purposes within the Labour Program.
| NAICS (1997) STATISTICS CANADA |
NAICS LABOUR PROGRAM |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction |
Primary Industries |
| Utilities (electric, power, gas distribution …) | Utilities |
| Construction | Construction |
| Manufacturing | Manufacturing |
| Wholesale Trade Retail Trade |
Wholesale and Retail Trade |
| Transportation and Storage (postal services) | Transportation |
| Information and Cultural Industries | Information and Culture |
| Finance and Insurance Real Estate and Rental and Leasing Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Management of Companies and Enterprises Administrative and Support, Waste Management and Remediation Services |
Finance and Professional Services |
| Educational Services Health Care and Social Assistance |
Education, Health and Social Services |
| Arts, Entertainment and Recreational Services Accommodation and Food Services Other Services, except public administration (service and maintenance, health care, funeral homes …) |
Entertainment and Hospitality |
| Public Administration | Public Administration |
| Source: Statistics Canada. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2002 http://www.statcan.ca/english/Subjects/Standard/naics/2002/naics02-index.htm |
Public and Private Sectors
Public and private sectors are defined by reference to employer characteristics, consistent with Statistics Canada’s use of 'institutional units' or 'entities'.
The principal unit of observation is the collective bargaining unit; however, the designation for inclusion in the public sector is by reference to characteristics of the employer with whom a bargaining unit negotiates. Reference to the employer characteristics makes the directives consistent with Statistics Canada's use of "institutional units" or "entities."
While the criteria relate to the classification of the public sector only, the private sector is defined by exclusion.
Public sector bargaining units negotiate wages or other working conditions with an employer who is part of, or an agent of, a government or a government business enterprise. The public sector includes:
- Federal Administration agreements are those subject to parts 1 and 2 of the Public Service Staff Relations Act and the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act;
- Crown Corporations;
- Provincial Administration consists of provincial and territorial public administrations, plus provincial liquor, wine and beer stores;
- Local Administration consists of municipal and regional public administrations, plus urban transit systems;
- Education, Health and Social Services consists of teachers, ambulance services, hospitals, health care and social assistance excluding agreements subject to Public Service Staff Relations Act;
- Utilities consist of public services, except for Bell Canada, Aliant Telecom Inc., Télébec, TELUS, Hydro-Québec and Hydro Ontario.
Jurisdiction
Settlement data is available for bargaining units covered by each provincial and territorital jurisdictions in Canada and in the federal jurisdiction for bargaining units covered by the Public Service Staff Relations Act, the Canada Labour Code Part 1 (covering the private sector and Crown Corporations) and those covered by the Status of the Artist Act (covering the private sector and Crown Corporations). The federal jurisdiction applies to:
- works or undertakings connecting a province with another province, territory or country, such as railways, bus operations, trucking, pipelines, ferries, tunnels, bridges, canals, telephone and cable systems;
- all extra-provincial shipping and services connected with shipping, such as longshoring;
- air transport, aircraft and airports;
- radio and television broadcasting;
- banks;
- defined operations of specific works that have been declared by Parliament to be for the general advantage of Canada or of two or more provinces and territories, such as flour, feed and seed cleaning mills, feed warehouses, grain elevators and uranium mining and processing; and
- federal Crown corporations.
Collective Agreement Information Retrieval System (CAIRS)
CAIRS is a database containing comprehensive data on the provisions of collective agreements under federal jurisdiction (200 or more employees) and provincial territorial jurisdictions (500 or more employees). It is intended for use by negotiators, researchers, arbitrators and other industrial relations/human resources practitioners as a vehicle to facilitate effective and informed discussions on matters of collective bargaining.
The information is provided through custom reports by contacting Client Services, Workplace Information Directorate.
The information is related to more than 100 contract provisions covering wages, working conditions, benefits and innovative practices and allowing for individual (qualitative) and comparative (quantitative) analysis by public and private sectors, by jurisdiction and by major industry sector. The maintenance of historical data allows for time-series analysis.
The coding of collective agreements covers 14 categories in 5 sections as follows :
Rights of Parties
1) Recognition of Union Security,
2) Management Rights to Test,
3) Employee Rights;
Organization of Work
4) Technological Change,
5) Distribution of Work;
Labour Relations
6) Labour Relations;
Education, Training and Employee Development
7) Education, Training and Employee Development;
Conditions of Work
8) Work Schedules,
9) Overtime,
10) Job security and Termination,
11) Pay,
12) Leaves and Vacation,
13) Benefits,
14) Provisions Relating to Part-time Employees.
Work Stoppages
Data on work stoppages collected by the Workplace Information Directorate covers strikes and lockouts which amount to 10 or more person-days lost.
A strike is a concerted work stoppage by a group of employees which is done in order to bring about a change in an employer's position, and it occurs during the negotiating process. A legal strike is one that respects all the conditions mandated by law, most notably that the strike is taking place during negotiations. A lockout occurs when work is suspended by the employer or a group of employers in order to pressure employees to change their position, and a lockout must also occur during negotiations.
Developments leading to work stoppages are sometimes too complex to make it practicable to distinguish between strikes on the one hand and lockouts on the other.
The major characteristics of work stoppages on which information is gathered are:
Employer—Firm or firms employing the employees reported on strike or locked out.
Location—Location of the plant or premises at which the work stoppage occurred.
Industry—Industry of employer according to the North American Industry Classification System (1997).
Union—The workers' organization(s) directly involved or concerned in the dispute that led to work stoppage.
Workers Involved—The total number of employees reported on strike or locked out, whether or not they all belonged to the union. Where the number of employees involved varied in the course of the stoppage, the maximum number is used in tabulating annual or other totals. Monthly totals are similarly based on the highest figures but allowance is made for changes reported in stoppages extending over two or more months. The total number of employees shown may include the same employees more than once if they are involved in more than one work stoppage during the year or other reference period. Employees indirectly affected, such as those laid off as a result of a work stoppage, are not included in the data on employees involved.
Starting Date—The day on which the work stoppage began.
Termination Date—The termination date is the day on which work was resumed. Some work stoppages are never formally settled, and this presents statistical difficulties. In such a case, the stoppage is usually considered terminated for statistical purposes, at the date by which it was established that two-thirds or more of the employees involved had either returned to work, or had found work with other employers; or the date by which it was reported that the operations affected by the work stoppage would not be resumed.
Duration– The duration of each stoppage is calculated in terms of working days, including the starting date and all subsequent normal working days up to the termination date. The days counted as working days are those on which the establishment involved would normally be in operation (five days per week).
Duration in Person-Days—The duration in working days is multiplied by the number of employees involved. For work stoppages involving establishments in which the number of weekly working days (see Duration above) exceeds the work week of individual employees, the duration in person-days is adjusted by the appropriate ratio. The data on duration of work stoppages in person-days are provided to facilitate comparisons of work stoppages in terms of a common denominator; they are not intended as a measure of the loss of production time to the economy. The expression "time loss" is occasionally used instead of "duration in person-days." The term most commonly used is "person-days not worked" in view of the duration in person-days of all work stoppages in a year is also shown as a percentage of estimated working time based on estimates of the number of non-agricultural paid employees in Canada obtained from the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Canada.
Jurisdiction—Statistics on work stoppages are also classified according to jurisdiction. This is done on the basis of the government and those businesses covered by Part 1 of the Canadian Labour Code whose industrial relations statistics are applicable to the establishment involved in the dispute. The tabulation of statistics on work stoppages by jurisdiction corresponds to a tabulation by province and territory, in addition to the Federal jurisdiction.
Labour Organizations in Canada
Information on labour organizations in Canada consists of a compendium of data on union membership, unions, congresses and other labour organizations in Canada. Included are international and national unions either affiliated or not to a central labour congress and having one or more members. The information also includes labour organizations comprised of a single bargaining unit and having more than 50 members but not affiliated with any other labour congress.
© Workplace Information Directorate, HRSDC—Labour Program
May 27, 2005
May 27, 2005