Significant Increases Secured for Interest Arbitration Award for ALOC/OCAA
On Monday, September 21, 2026, the Board of Arbitration chaired by Arbitrator James Hayes, released its interest arbitration award in Association of Law Officers of the Crown (ALOC)/Ontario Crown Attorney’s Association (OCAA) v Ontario (Treasury Board Secretariat) (the “Award”).
Overall, the Award contains some significant and notable gains. On salary, the across the board increases and special adjustments amount to 8.46% compounded for 2025-26 and 2026-27 (a 3.75% increase effective July 1, 2025, a 1.25% special salary adjustment effective halfway through the first year on January 1, 2026, and a 3.25% increase effective July 1, 2026).
In contrast the employer had proposed increases of 2.25% for 2025/26 and 2% for 2026/27, based on its position about what certain other public sector groups had received.
The award also includes increases 11.92% for articling students, 24.82% for first year summer students, and 15.91% for second year summer students compounded over two years (for articling students, a 8.82% increase effective July 1, 2025 and a 2.86% increase effective July 1, 2026; for first year summer students, a 14.42% increase effective April 1, 2025 and a 9.09% increase effective April 1, 2026; for second year summer students, a 6.64% increase effective April 1, 2025 and a 8.7% increase effective April 1, 2026).
As per the Framework Agreement between the parties, the increases for July 1st 2027 and 2028 are to be determined automatically by applying the Industrial Aggregate Index (“IAI”).
In addition to the salary improvements, the Award and agreed-to-items include benefit improvements, most notably to paramedical benefits. At the same time, the Associations were once again successful at fending off the Employer’s proposal for detrimental changes to drug benefit coverage in exchange for a minimal Health Care Spending Account.
The Award is also significant because the Chair strongly endorsed the Associations’ preferred comparators, while rejecting the employer’s arguments on this issue. He confirmed that “lawyers should be compared to lawyers,” that the most “reliable direct comparators are…to be found in the justice sector,” that presumptive weight should be accorded to “comparisons with provincial judges and private sector lawyers,” and that in contrast Ontario public service and broader public sector comparators carry “marginal weight”. This clear and persuasive definition of the relevant comparator group positions us well for further success in future rounds of bargaining.
At the same time, the Chair noted that although a “meaningful increase” was warranted for Crown lawyers, it must be “necessarily tempered by current economic circumstances,” but for which he may have otherwise awarded even greater economic increases.
Steven Barrett and Colleen Bauman represented ALOC in the arbitration proceedings.
Lawyers
Steven Barrett, Colleen Bauman