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Labour Requirements

When Ontario Power Generation (OPG) tenders or issues a Request for Proposal on generating station trades work the documents will identify the Labour Requirements, if any, associated with that work. These requirements stem from a number of construction labour collective agreements that OPG is bound to as noted in the following paragraph.

The Electrical Power Systems Construction Association (EPSCA) negotiates and administers collective agreements with the Building Trades for Ontario Power Generation and all contractors performing trades work on Ontario Power Generation generating sites. There are 18 EPSCA collective agreements currently in place:

Boilermakers

Carpenters

Cement Masons

IBEW – Generation (Electricians)

IBEW – Transmission (Electricians)

Insulators

Iron Workers

Labourers

Millwrights

Operating Engineers

Painters

Plasterers

Rodmen

Roofers

Sheet Metal Workers

Teamsters

Tile and Terrazzo

United Association (Plumbers & Pipefitters)

In addition, OPG has collective agreements directly with 2 Building Trade Unions (BTU) where contractors are obligated to comply with the terms and conditions when carrying out work on OPG sites. These unions are the Canadian Union of Skilled Workers (CUSW) and the Brick and Allied Craft Union (BACU). Their collective agreements and wage schedules are available below. OPG also has a collective agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Any company and any of its sub-contractors performing designated trades work on applicable OPG sites, either in accordance with the EPSCA collective agreements or the relevant OPG/Building Trade Union collective agreements, or the Machinists collective agreement, shall be required to conform and adhere to the provisions of those collective agreements. OPG utilizes a process called “Labour Requirements” to ensure that contract bidders are aware of these obligations as they prepare their bids.

The process is initiated when a Labour Requirement Form is received by OPG. Decisions are based on the information contained in the Labour Requirement Form as to whether the work should be done under the EPSCA, CUSW, BACU, or Machinists conditions or whether these conditions do not apply. The nature of the work, monetary value of the contract, the hours of work as well as the trades involved and jurisdictional issues are all taken into consideration to make this determination.

There are three possible determinations with respect to labour requirements:

Form 1 – collective agreement provisions apply because work is above threshold
Form B – collective agreement provisions do not apply because work is below threshold
No Labour requirement – collective agreement provisions do not apply because not trades work or off-property

If a labour requirement is determined a ‘Form 1’ a tendering package or Request for Proposal is assembled and sent to the Contract Administrator responsible for the work. Through this process, contract bidders are advised via tender/Request for Proposal documents of the labour requirements, if any, associated with the work. This includes the labour obligations** and associated collective agreements and wage schedule obligations***. In addition, it includes an “Acknowledgement of Labour Requirements” that the successful bidder is required to sign as part of the commercial contract.

Form 1 tendering package includes:

If the trades work in the Form 1 tendering package requires Boilermakers or Pipe Fitters, the following notice with respect to non-destructive testing must be considered. If the trades work in the tendering package references Operating Engineers, the following notice with respect to crane rentals must be considered.

If a labour requirement is determined as a ‘Form B’ the contract bidders do not need to perform the work under a collective agreement. However, the contractor must agree to pay ‘fair wages’ for the area as outlined in the Labour Requirements Clause – Form B notice.

For more information on the Labour Requirements process, please contact Jon Wolfe (416-592-6462).

** It is the contractor’s obligation to determine trades work assignments on a job through the mark-up provisions in the collective agreements.

*** EPSCA collective agreements and wage schedules included in tendering packages are to be used as a guideline and may change after the issuance of tender documents. Please refer to www.EPSCA.org for current EPSCA collective agreements and wage schedules. See below for current collective agreements and wage schedules for CUSW and BACU.

OPG Collective Agreements:

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers 2000-2004 Collective Agreement

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Wage Schedule