Seniority

When You Need to Transfer Seniority: Updated Information

Within a pillar site/unit/program to another, your seniority follows automatically.

If you transfer from one employer to another, you will need to transfer your seniority.

Now that AHS has been divided into employer groups, whenever an employee transfers between employers, they must transfer their seniority.

December 22, 2025 will be the Payroll Transfer Date on which employees of Acute Care Alberta, Primary Care Alberta, and Recovery Alberta will be migrated from the AHS payroll to their new employer-specific payroll groups.

AHS, Recovery Alberta, Acute Care Alberta and Primary Care Alberta will become separate bargaining units for purposes of applying and administering the Collective Agreement, except as specifically amended in the “Post Payroll Transition” terms of the Transition Agreement or the Collective Agreements. 

The Payroll Transfer Dates for Assisted Living Alberta, Cancer Care Alberta, Emergency Health Services, and Give Life Alberta have not been determined by the employer. Employees of those organizations will remain on the AHS payroll until a payroll transition date is determined.

You might want to remain casual at one site, but if you stay at both sites (or both pillars), that would nullify this agreement. After seniority and hours are ported, you can apply for a position at the other site. Resigning is the only way to port your seniority, hours, and vacation time from Covenant to Primary Care Alberta (or between any other pillars), and vice versa. 

Appendix X Addendum A

8. PROMOTIONS, TRANSFERS AND VACANCIES

(a) If a vacancy remains at another Employer, Employees from the other Employer have the right to apply for the vacancy at the other Employer. The vacancy shall be filled whenever possible from Employees covered by this Addendum. Should the Employee be the successful candidate, the Employee may transfer accrued seniority and pension entitlements, vacation entitlements and unused vacation up to one (1) year’s entitlement and illness leave, up to the maximum level of entitlements in effect at the receiving bargaining unit. Such Employee shall be subject to Article 14: Promotions, Transfers & Vacancies of the receiving Collective Agreement (and any related Addenda).

What Members Must Do

To make sure your seniority transfers correctly:

1. Gather Your Documentation: Request a seniority or hours-worked report from your current employer. This is usually available through HR, payroll, or ePeople.

2. Complete the Seniority Declaration Form 

3. Email the completed Seniority Declaration Form to local196exec@una.ca to submit to HR

When completing the Seniority Declaration Form:

Ensure all exact dates are the calendar dates. Use your best estimate of the dates of employment, but include the day, month, and year. The local is not responsible for contacting your previous employers or locating records on your behalf.

Undergrad and UNE positions count as long as the service has been CONTINUOUS.

If there has been a break in service greater than SIX (6) months, this is the starting date, and previous dates cannot be considered for seniority. Approved leaves of absence (ex., maternity leave, LTD or STD) are not considered a break in service.

Did the previous employer have an agreement for the portability of seniority? Check the employer bargaining group and/or collective agreement.

If the service was out of province, there is NO seniority portability out of province.

Out-of-scope: You don’t acquire seniority when you work in an out-of-scope position. Those days are subtracted from the length of seniority, which means they are ADDED to the starting seniority date.

Example – You worked out of scope for 1 year. Your original seniority date was Oct 4, 2020. If you return to an in-scope position within 18 months, your adjusted seniority date would be October 4, 2021.

Attach all supporting documents or missing information. Sometimes an employer can look in old “VAX” records, or the employee has an ROE or paystub, T4, showing they were paid for working.

Ensure the seniority declaration is FULLY and accurately completed before submitting to the Local for review.  If the form is incomplete, it will be returned for completion. This will delay the processing of your request.