If you thought all of the issues with secondary teacher contracts had been resolved, you’re mistaken. While a central deal was ratified with the provincial government in the fall, that agreement doesn’t tell the entire story. Part of Ontario teachers’ contracts are overseen by local boards and the Trillium Lakelands District School Board has not yet reached an agreement with OSSTF District 15, the union district that includes teachers at Huntsville High School.
Louise Clodd, TLDSB Chair, explained it like this: “The centrally bargained items are anything with a dollar amount attached to them, like wages, sick leave, and benefits. Anything locally that is agreed upon relates to working conditions. That would include things like the appraisal process, how some PA (Professional Activity) Days can be used, and requests for personal leave. Specifically where we are stuck (in this negotiation) is on personal leave days and how they are allocated and used, and also performance reviews.”
Negotiations between the Board and District 15 broke off last week when a provincial mediator called off talks just half a day into a scheduled two days of meetings, prompting the school board to request arbitration.
In a media release, the TLDSB said, “The school board will be requesting arbitration of all outstanding issues. OSSTF continues to demand easier access to time off for teachers during the school year. TLDSB believes increased teacher absenteeism will have a negative impact on student achievement. The union demands also include trying to make it more difficult for principals and the board to conduct performance appraisals of secondary teachers. The union demands in this area would be precedent setting and leave the school board liable to charges that it was not meeting its obligations under the Education Act and Regulations as well as the College of Teachers Act. This is unacceptable to the school board.”
“We are proud of our secondary teachers and their commitment to each of our students,” added Clodd in the release. “Academic achievement and student well-being is only possible when it remains the first priority for all members of our staff and becomes a priority for local leadership of the secondary teachers union.”
In a conversation with Doppler, Clodd added clarity on both issues. “Performance appraisals are a legislated process. It mandates that there are five areas of teaching that must be looked at and they have 64 different competencies. (The union’s) demand would not allow the principal and the school board administrators to review all of those domains and despite having input into the legislation our local union is saying that they want to change that process. We are going to continue to follow the legislated process.
“Also, the teachers have three days personal leave per year, and the principals can approve one day but if a teacher requests more than one day in a row there is an application process. This process works well and ensures equity and consistency across our system. The union wants a decision to be made on a school-by-school basis instead of being done through the application process we have in place which would undermine the consistency of how it works. We believe that our process for having the teachers request time off for those three personal days works well and is consistent.”
According to the release, OSSTF District 15 has indicated that they will increase strike actions which will negatively affect almost 4,900 students (across the region) who are beginning the second semester of the school year.
Clodd’s understanding is that the union intends to tell teachers to withdraw from any board initiatives, including the coming TLDSB Art Camp.
“We find it very difficult to understand why District 15 is unable to reach an agreement when local agreements have been reached in almost every other school board in the province,” said Clodd. District 15 is one of four districts in Ontario that has not reached an agreement with their local board.
OSSTF District 15 president Colin Matthew had not responded to a Doppler request for comment at the time of publication.
They no longer bank sick days and haven’t been able to do that since the last contract was negotiated! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion however I would suggest checking the facts prior to doing so!
Retirement gratuities (banking of sick days) are a thing of the past which were negotiated out in the last contract negotiation! This negotiation has nothing to do with that!
In all my working life I know of no other group that can bank their “sick days” for years and then take off early with pay when they retire.
This is not, or should not be the intent of sick days. Such days should be to cover off temporary sickness as needed. They should not be used as a form of pay.
Of course a little common sense and compassion go both ways here, or should.
On a broader level, why on earth do we continue, year after year to allow the start of a school year without a signed contract to cover the entire year. This has been going on again for as long as i can remember and it leads to the situation where a strike will hold the students hostage. This is such a great bargaining tool, to hold this power over the students who have no say or power to fight back and are completely innocent of the contract negotiations but they get used as a pawn, nothing more than a bargaining chip every time.
If I was in charge the school year would not start until the contracts to cover it had been signed. There is, after all over two months of summer to negotiate all this stuff and get the thing signed, two months that a lot of people consider to be a holiday for teachers and board of education (and I think the Board is just as guilty here as any teacher) staffers. Of course if one asks or comments one is quickly “put in place” to the effect that this summer is spent hard at work by both sides in preparing for the next instructional year. Too bad this preparation does not seem to extend to the negotiation of the teachers contract.
Sick days are a problem that need to be resolved once and for all. No public employee should be “given” days which they can bank to use as desired or take as a lump sum bonus upon retirement. If you’re sick take a sick day. They have a number of personal care days available which can be used at their discretion.
Time to join the 21st century labour pool.