Ontario high school teachers to vote on revised contract

Apr 1, 2013 | News

By
Education Minister Liz Sandals happy with agreement. (PHOTO COURTESY: http://www.lizsandals.onmpp.ca/mHome)

Education Minister Liz Sandals happy with agreement. (PHOTO COURTESY: http://www.lizsandals.onmpp.ca/mHome)

Compiled by Samantha Martin

The union representing Ontario high school teachers has agreed in principle to revisions to the contract imposed in December.

Educators will vote on the deal this week.

Government officials told CBC’s Mike Crowley The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the province made the deal at 4 a.m. on Friday.

In a statement, Education Minister Liz Sandals said the two sides were able to resolve implementation concerns identified in a number of areas including sick leave, maternity leave, retirement gratuity, unpaid days, and local bargaining.

Details of the “agreement in principle” will be shared with OSSTF members during the union’s approval process; the details will then be made public after the process is completed.

The long dispute resulted in contracts being imposed by the government on public school teachers earlier this year.

Last September the province passed Bill-115, an anti-strike legislation, the Ontario government then used the new bill to impose a contract on public elementary and secondary school teachers.

The imposed contracts included freezing wages for most teachers, reducing the number of allowed sick days, and limiting the number of unclaimed sick days teachers can cash out upon retirement.

In reaction to the contract teachers began a series of one-day strikes in December 2012.

In January 2013, the province repealed Bill-115 after the two year imposed contracts were put in place, as teachers’ frustrations continued, unions asked their members to stop supervising extracurricular as such supervision is beyond the job requirement.

In February 2013, the OSSTF agreed to resume extracurricular supervision allowing individual teachers to choose whether or not to participate.