Teachers, province spend weekend in marathon negotiations
Ontario’s elementary school teachers and support staff could end up with lighter paycheques this week in light of their work-to-rule campaigns as contract talks continue with the province.
The province will give an update today on negotiations with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) – and that could include giving the union five days’ notice that employees who aren’t doing full duty won’t get full pay.
Premier Kathleen Wynne first issued an ultimatum on Oct. 23, setting Nov. 1 as the deadline to consider issuing a five-day notice that school boards could start docking pay, after teachers decided to ramp up a work-to-rule campaign that cut extracurricular activities last week, and janitors and other support staff began doing less cleaning.
The teachers’ union issued a media blackout on the weekend as a marathon negotiation session continued.
CBC’s Linda Ward checked in on the state of negotiations Monday morning.
“Negotiations did continue through the weekend, all night, and are still ongoing right now,” she reported.
A spokesperson for Education Minister Liz Sandals said Monday in a statement emailed to CBC News that “bargaining continues and we look forward to being able to provide an update later today.”
‘Schools are increasingly dirty’
School support staff – including custodians, office staff and education assistants, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation – also joined the job action.
“Schools are increasingly dirty, and activities that are important to students and parents such as completion of report cards are not taking place,” Wynne told reporters at Queen’s Park when she brought up the possibility of reduced paycheques.
Contract expired August 2014
ETFO president Sam Hammond said at the time that teachers would not respond to threats.
The union represents 78,000 teachers, who have been without a contract since August 2014.
Throughout the bargaining process, the two sides had stumbled over key issues, including:
- Class sizes.
- Hiring practices.
- Preparation time.
- Salaries.
Earlier this fall, the province reached deals with other major teachers’ unions.
Source: www.cbc.ca/news