Help Us Help You
ONA staff need a fair deal to continue our important work of supporting ONA members in Ontario. Our collective agreement expired on December 31, 2024, and we started negotiations in January 2025.
How many hours did LROs at ONA collectively work for no pay in 2024?
0 hours
X
500 hours
X
1,000 hours
X
5,000 hours
X
In 2024, we have collectively worked 8,290 without pay. We managed to carry over about 6,000 of those into 2024, but it is unclear how many lieu days we will manage to take. What’s not taken by July 31, 2025 will be forfeited.
Why would ONA staff do this?
Because we know the work YOU do is invaluable, and we want to support ONA members. However, we can’t continue to do so under our current working conditions.
Labour Relations Officers pay at ONA is maxed at 35 hrs per week. After that, hours go into a bank we cannot fully cash out – we must take time off in lieu of pay, but because there are not enough staff to do the needed work, we simply don’t get to take all our time off.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the number of unpaid hours worked by ONA staff has NEARLY DOUBLED with no sign of letting up.
It’s not only the LROs – there are also high expectations of Labour Relations Assistants. Many LRAs assist four LROs, are overworked, and understaffed. Request for overtime approval so that we can keep up with the workload is regularly denied, meaning these additional hours go uncompensated.
Employees in Dues and Finance, IT, and Building Services are also stretched thin; working long hours to ensure the continuation of services to their colleagues and the ONA membership.
Many of us work extra hours for no pay. We shouldn’t be taken advantage of simply because we care.
What do we want?
ONA staff priorities are in many ways aligned with yours. Our pay simply hasn’t kept pace with the rising cost of living. Even though we are working more unpaid overtime than ever, inflation has outpaced any pay increases from ONA. During the Bill 124 years, like ONA members, we also only took 1% raises even though we were not subject to Bill 124, and inflation kept rising dramatically. Our real pay is now 6% behind where it was five years ago.
Fortunately, through hard work we helped overturn the government’s bill and ONA members are being retroactively compensated. We continue to work for you and in 2023 and 2024, we were successful in getting Hospital employees an average of 11.24% increase. In 2024 and 2025, the nursing home sector received an average of 11.5% wage increase thanks to the efforts of ONA staff.
Unfortunately, our employer doesn’t think we deserve the same catch-up. After four days of bargaining, our employer is only offering us wage increases of 1.75% – offers that will see our wages fall even further behind inflation. If ONA members received such a wage offer, ONA would accuse employers of being disrespectful. However, when ONA is the employer, they deem such wage offer as fair. There’s a double-standard. It’s a problem. And you can help.
PHOTO ABOVE: Ottawa Office SEIU Members Support Their Bargaining Team!
What can ONA members do?
Contact your Local Bargaining Unit President, Local Coordinators, and Regional VP’s.
Tell them you are concerned about the situation with ONA employees.
Why should ONA members care?
It’s not just about basic fairness. Current working conditions for ONA employees are making it difficult to retain staff.
We work hard to improve conditions (including compensation) for ONA members and you deserve to have the best staff in your corner looking out for your interests. ONA members are no strangers to being overworked and dealing with burnout, staffing levels and retention issues. We know there is more work to do, and we’d like your support so we can continue fighting for you.
PHOTO ABOVE: Marina, Kathi and Melanie from Dundas
Petition
Fairness & Respect for ONA Staff
Supporting ONA members is important work!
We call on ONA’s Board of Directors to negotiate a fair deal for ONA employees.