Teachers withdraw from voluntary professional services 'until further notice'
The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) has begun “work to rule” job action as negotiations for a new provincial collective bargaining agreement has stalled.
The labour move started on Monday.
Work-to-rule involves the withdrawal of all voluntary services, including noon-hour supervision and extracurricular activities, explained STF. Teachers will restrict their services to the hours of the workday.
This means there will be no voluntary services and teachers will begin their shift 15 minutes before the bell rings and end 15 minutes after, explained CBC.
The withdrawal of voluntary professional services will be in effect “until further notice,” said the Regina Public Schools, according to a Regina Leader-Post report.
“This government has lost all credibility and believability on the education file,” said Samantha Becotte, STF president. “Since negotiations began last May, they say one thing and do another.”
In March, more than 4,000 teachers held a rally at the Legislative Building in Regina, while hundreds more took part in demonstrations at other locations throughout the province, according to STF.
“They ask us to trust them and then pull the rug out from under our feet. We were cautiously optimistic when they proposed an accountability framework, but they refuse to put a single line in the contract that would actually commit to that accountability,” said Becotte.
STF noted that on March 8, the Saskatchewan government and the Saskatchewan School Boards Association announced a Multi-Year Funding Agreement that purports to provide funds to address issues of class size and complexity.
This MFA leaves these funds, which are critically needed in classrooms, open to appropriation for other uses, such as servicing debt, expanding school board offices, or government clawbacks, according to STF.
“With their MFA announcement, government and the SSBA sidestepped the collective bargaining process and deeply disrespected teachers’ bargaining rights by cutting a backroom deal between themselves,” said Becotte.
STF also said that “almost 400,000 emails” have been sent to decision makers in government and school boards since January asking them to “bargain in good faith with teachers”.
Previously, a last-minute agreement prevented more than 8,000 academic and support workers at the University of Toronto (U of T) who are represented by their union from walking off the job.
