Alberta Health Services forcing some non-union workers to take unpaid time off

Alberta’s health authority is forcing some employees to take unpaid time off to ease its financial crunch, according to a memo obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said employees who are not unionized and fall within certain salary grades must take two days off without pay before the end of March, 2026. The memo, distributed Wednesday, said this is a “one-time cost savings measure.”

The document, from Erin O’Neill, the agency’s senior vice-president of finance and shared services, did not indicate how much money the furlough program would save or the extent of the organization’s budgetary shortfall.