Agreement Reached on Incentive Benefit for Unionized Childhood Educators (ECEs)

The provincial government continues to apply its Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy, which has been providing ECE Wage Enhancements (WEs) for several years. In late 2023, it announced that the Wage Enhancement would increase up to an additional $2 per hour effective December 1, 2023, resulting in the accumulated total ECE-WEs being up to $6 per hour. However, the announcement excluded the most recent $2 per hour increase from being available to employees and employers in the public sector, including CSSEA member employers. Rather, it directed CSSEA to negotiate with the CSSBA to arrive at its own mutually agreeable arrangement for any improvements under the Parties’ MOA 25 (Non-Provincially Funded Childcare Positions). The government committed a defined amount of funding to support outcomes consistent with this MOA and the agreement reached by the Parties under it.

On May 7, 2024 the CSSBA and CSSEA reached agreement. Eligible employees will receive an incentive Benefit, calculated to be at least $1/hour, and potentially up to $7/hour based on an employee’s current wage rate. The benefit for eligible employees is calculated on each hour paid starting in the first pay period of May 2024, and paid out every other month as a lump sum, subject to all normal payroll deductions. For some employees, this will mean that they will receive a Benefit greater than if they were covered by the Strategy, and all employees, even those covered by the JJEP and CSSEA Wage Grids, will receive at least a $1 Benefit per paid hour.

The Benefit amounts are set out in the wage table of the Agreement, which can be found here. Please commence these calculations for your eligible employees starting in the first pay period in May 2024. The first Benefit payment is to be made in the last pay period of June 2024. The last payment of the Benefit will be made in the last pay period of April 2025, unless CSSEA and CSSBA negotiate an extension or other arrangement. If that occurs, we will notify you again at that time.

Based on employee data provided to CSSEA, CSSEA will provide your agency with the funding necessary to implement the Benefit plus usual payroll costs, such as CPP, EI, MPP, paid holidays and vacation. You can expect payment within the next month.

For additional background information, please see the following CSSEA Info bulletins:
• Who Qualifies for Government’s Early Childhood Educator Funding?
• Update on Early Childhood Educator Funding
• Latest Update on Early Childhood Educator Funding
• CSSEA and CSSBA Agree to Early Childhood Educator Wage Enhancement Allocation Process
• Early Childhood Educator Wage Enhancements – Directions to Community Social Services Employers

Should you have any questions, please contact your CSSEA Advocate or Consultant.