History
In March 1987, Professor Paul Weiler was appointed as Special Advisor to the Acting Chairman of the Management Board of Cabinet to review, report on and recommend appropriate procedures for establishing compensation levels, employee benefits and terms of employment for professional public servants employed by the government.
Shortly thereafter, a meeting of civil lawyers employed by the Ministry of the Attorney General was held. It was decided that civil lawyers, as a group, would make submissions to Professor Weiler on compensation for government lawyers.
Professor Weiler's Report, released in January 1988 adopted the submission of the civil lawyers group that compensation should be determined by a binding arbitration process implemented by way of contract.
The Association of Law Officers of the Crown (ALOC) was officially formed on December 17, 1987 under the name Association of the Ministry of the Attorney General Civil Lawyers. The Association was governed by an interim Board of directors, whose members were Carol Creighton, Paul Chappell, Dennis Brown, Janet Minor, Elizabeth Goldberg and John Gregory.
On May 26, 1988, the Association's first election of a Board of directors was held and Elizabeth Goldberg was elected as President.
The mandate of the Association as set out in the Memorandum of the Association included negotiating salaries and professional fees on behalf of its members, engaging in and conducting programs of continuing education and training, and negotiating working conditions and related matters with the employer.
In 1988, the ALOC and the Ontario Crown Attorney's Association (the "OCAA") (representing government lawyers working in the Criminal Law Division) were invited by Management Board to meet with government representatives to discuss the Weiler recommendations.
On June 7, 1989, Cabinet approved a new Lawyers Compensation Plan which established a new classification and compensation scheme for lawyers.
On July 21, 1989, discussions between the associations and the Ontario government culminated in the signing of a Framework Agreement on collective bargaining between the government of Ontario, ALOC and the OCAA. This document detailed the collective bargaining procedure for lawyers working in their professional capacities for the Ontario government including how collective bargaining would proceed and the matters that would be subject to collective bargaining. Its significance was in giving lawyers a voice in determining their compensation which may be pursued through binding arbitration. However, bargaining and binding interest arbitration were generally restricted to professional fees and salary range minimum and maximums under the scheme established by the Lawyers Compensation Plan.
In October 1989, ALOC and the OCAA entered into their first round of collective bargaining for salaries and professional fees with the Ontario government which resulted in their first collective agreement in January 1990.
In negotiating its first collective agreement, it was ALOC's position that compensation for government lawyers should reflect the significance of the job to the Ontario government. Government lawyers are regularly involved in legal and policy matters of national or provincial significance or matters which reflect the rights and liberties of individual citizens. Compensation should also reflect the very high levels of responsibility undertaken by legal staff and the years of advanced education required by lawyers together with the professional standards and obligations which lawyers must meet.
ALOC's first annual educational conference was held in March 1990 at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Two hundred and seventy-five lawyers attended.
ALOC formalized its organizational structure by incorporating by Letters Patent issued on August 7, 1996. The corporation's first directors were Donald Bourgeois, Earle Straus and Anita Lyon.
In August 1993, ALOC entered into a social contract agreement, which included various job security provisions. As a result of the social contract no merit increase, movement in salary steps or progress through the salary range was granted to lawyers for the three years of the social contract. The effect of the social contract was to undermine the principles of the Lawyers Compensation Plan by treating lawyers with different levels of expertise and experience the same. Government lawyers at the lowest classification levels suffered a disproportionate adverse monetary effects as junior lawyers were unable to obtain the usual twice annual salary advancements which were recognized and contemplated under the Lawyers Compensation Plan.
ALOC and the OCAA have subsequently negotiated Framework Agreements and collective agreements in 1995, 1998 and 2002.
In 2000, negotiations between the Ontario government and ALOC and the OCAA resulted in an interest arbitration. The decision of William Kaplan confirmed the historical compensation parity between crown counsel and the judiciary with the most senior crown counsels receiving compensation comparable to that of provincial court judges. The decision also confirmed that Ontario private sector lawyers' salary levels are a relevant consideration and are useful in the determination of the salaries of crown counsel.
ALOC's current Framework Agreement is effective from 2002 to 2013. The first collective agreement under the 2002 to 2013 Framework Agreement was effective from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2004. ALOC and the OCAA have recently negotiated a second collective agreement under the 2002 to 2013 Framework Agreement.
In 2005, ALOC agreed to accept articling students employed by the Government of Ontario into the bargaining unit. In April, 2007, an arbitration award established the first collective agreement for articling students between ALOC and the Government of Ontario.