Ken Coran won the approval of 96 per cent of his local bargaining unit presidents Thursday with an agreement that boosts sick day payouts to newer teachers and reduces the number of unpaid days off to one or two, rather than three.
Results of the teachers’ ratification vote will be available April 18.
The deal, hammered out with government officials over eight days — with stretches of 20 hours at times — gives local school boards the flexibility to find other ways to save money so they can afford the paid professional development days Coran called important for training teachers to best serve students. Those days would have been all-but eliminated with the unpaid time off.
“We worked really, really hard and I think we have reached a deal that’s fair to the maximum number of people,” Liberal Education Minister Liz Sandals said in an interview. “I think everybody has put a tremendous amount of goodwill into this.”
The agreement with the 60,000-member Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation — and similar promises made to the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario — has “no new money,” Sandals added.
While she would not say how much the agreed items cost, even when extended to all teacher unions — as they will be under what’s commonly called a “me too” clause in teacher contracts — she said: “I am 100 per cent confident that we will not go beyond the available savings.”
Those savings were unexpected and discovered by the education ministry at its March 31 fiscal year-end; they fund all the improvements offered to teachers, Sandals said without providing the amount.
The agreement with secondary teachers comprises “amendments” to the controversial two-year contracts imposed on teachers by the province earlier this year under Bill 115.
The fewer unpaid days off could be funded by offering teachers who want to take more time off, or boards could offer early retirement, replacing those teachers with newer teachers who earn lower salaries.
The Ontario PC party has said the deal will cost taxpayers $63 milliondeal will cost taxpayers $63 million and accused the Liberals of turning their backs on their austerity plan.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation agreement covers public secondary teachers as well as support staff, including education assistants, early childhood educators and some clerical staff.
Coran called the deal a “win-win” that is “fair for our members, the government, taxpayers and students.”
It includes a promise that no change to the pay grid would be imposed in future — as it was this time under Dalton McGuinty — but bargained together.
In protest over the government’s heavy-handed approach with teachers, the union had advised members to stop running extracurricular activities, which lasted 42 days.
Coran admitted Thursday that “there may be some teachers who never go back to extracurriculars; some are very upset (about the imposition of contracts) but I hope when people see the details of this deal they’ll come back.”
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Louise Brown and Kristin Rushowy
No comments:
Post a Comment