Wages rolled back if teachers don’t agree to new deal: Province

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The BC Teachers Federation has been told that the province will roll wages back five per cent for teachers if they don’t agree to a new deal.

If teachers accept before the end of this school year, they will get a $1,200 signing bonus.

BC’s lead negotiator, Peter Cameron, says teachers are working less and they should be paid less, which is where the five per cent pay cut comes into account.

That roll back could increase to a 10 per cent cut if teachers move beyond phase two of job action. “It’s pretty likely, I mean there has to be some pressure here, and that’s the pressure that’s available.”

As for the signing bonus, he says it could end up costing more that $40 million.

Cameron adds the BCTF is demanding more compensation when other unions have accepted much less.

They are hoping to have a deal finalized by the end of the school year.

On Twitter, The BCTF says it has contacted the Labour Relations Board about the threats.

Cameron went on to say the province has trouble with the educational and cost perspective of the class size and composition aspect of negotiations.

“The cost is enormous, it’s actually many times their wage proposals, which are themselves enormous so there’s a huge financial hit, but to the extent that they can make an education outcome case for some part of that, that would be different, but in fact the evidence is that their proposal would have worse outcomes than the present.”

He says the government wants to move forward on the issue, but not on the basis of their formula. “Three kids to one class, special needs kids, okay, one more, gotta do something. It doesn’t matter whether the special needs kids have got any relevance, their need has any relevance to that class. You’re dyslexic and you’re in a gym class, you’re still special needs, all that kind of stuff is nonsense, we’ve got to get beyond that. It’s got human rights problems, it’s got all kinds of problems.”

Cameron argues the record over the last ten years since those provisions haven’t been in the agreement, the outcomes have improved dramatically. “That’s from our perspective, they’ve got a different perspective but it’s a particularly difficult issue because it’s very expensive and from our point of view, it’s clear that’s the wrong way to go in terms of educational outcomes.”

At press conference this afternoon, BCTF President Jim Iker made it very clear what they are looking for if the province wants to come to an agreement.

“If we’re going to see a deal, it must include appropriate class size limits, class composition guarantees and guaranteed staffing levels of specialist teachers into the collective agreement.”

Iker said the BC Supreme Court has ruled that these provisions must be returned, and teachers are determined to accomplish that, “for the sake of our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions.”

When asked about the content of the new collective agreement, Cameron said it’s really not a factor. “The union takes the position that the remedy in the court case, which is what’s under appeal, that that should stand as the sort of base from which they’re negotiating, then we say,’okay, well, if you win the appeal, that’s the base from which you’re negotiating.’ It still doesn’t say where we go to from there. We think that approach is wrong.”

Cameron says the government wants a proven approach in terms of outcomes for kids going forward. “In a sense, it doesn’t alter our position, whichever way the appeal went, it wouldn’t affect the idea that going forward, it’s better to do it properly than borrow some formula from the past century.”

“The government still has what we believe an unfair and unreasonable salary offer on the table that includes a zero in year two.” countered Iker. “Teachers have already taken two years of legislated zeros. It’s time for the government to put something that’s actually fair on the table. Teachers want a negotiated settlement,”

When Iker was asked about the signing bonus, “you know, if they put that twelve hundred dollars into a percentage towards our salary grid, that would bring us closer.”

 

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