Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
PAE-11: Sustainable Compensation

NAIT's lowest paid workers (custodial staff and catering/food services staff) are members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees union. Their wages, working conditions and benefits (including provision of a defined benefit pension plan) are governed by the collective agreement negotiated by the institute and the union. NAIT is one of the few remaining post-secondary institutions in Alberta that still has employees providing these services, as most others contract these services to external parties. Wages and benefits for this group of staff are compared to other public sector institutions within Alberta, in each round of collective bargaining. NAIT pays at least average and normally above average wages for our region (as compared to other unionized public sector institutions). No employees (non-student workers) would be compensated at a rate less than 50% higher than the minimum wage for the Province of Alberta. NAIT contracts approximately 20 facilities maintenance staff to support operations and maintenance at our Main Campus location. In the tendering/purchasing process for selection of the company to provide this service, specific questions were asked regarding tenure of staff, turnover of staff and overall sustainability of their workforce. The staff provided to support NAIT are all members of a trade union, earning industry comparable wages. They would not be considered anywhere near the "lowest paid workers" category. See URL below - HR.2.0 Compensation Policy