The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) is asking the Labour Relations Board to address its concerns about health and safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Documents filed with the board say the federation has heard from many of its members about "inconsistent and inadequate" health and safety precautions in schools.
The complaint says the protections don't meet what was promised by the provincial government over the summer for reopening schools amid the pandemic.
The teachers have filed the submission under a section of the labour code that allows the board to make settlement recommendations over disputes while a collective agreement is in force.
The federation wants the board to act on an expedited basis to resolve concerns that may cause teachers to "refuse to perform unsafe work" or file a "tsunami of grievances" about how school districts have implemented Ministry of Education policies.
Federation president Teri Mooring said her union has worked "hand in hand" with the provincial government for months, but that she has lost faith in its commitment to safety.
"The (federation) would not be taking this step if we didn't feel the government had failed to keep teachers and students safe," she said at a news conference on Friday. "Unfortunately, our concerns have not been taken seriously, they've been diminished and dismissed."
The education minister was expected to comment on the union's complaints on Friday.
The provincial government isn't willing to invest enough money to ensure proper COVID-19 safety measures are being followed, Mooring said.
Part of the issue, she said, is the government isn't enforcing its own COVID-19 guidelines in schools and leaving it up to individual school districts.
That has led to problems with rules around such things as student cohorts, Mooring said.
Students have been sorted into learning groups, called cohorts, to reduce the number of people they come in contact with. For elementary and middle school students, groups can be no larger than 60 people. Secondary school groups are capped at 120.
But Mooring said the cohort model has already broken down.
"You cannot keep a closed group within a larger system, schools don't work that way, students don't work that way," said Mooring. "It's not an adequate protection."
She also raised concerns about the level of staffing to properly clean schools and the availability of personal protective equipment for teachers.
Mooring said the union avoided filing grievances when the pandemic first broke out, in the spirit of working with the government to find a solution.
"This summer, we were really disappointed when time and time again, government was making decisions that were not informed by the steering committee, not informed by what teachers say, and that was really disappointing to us."
The submission comes as B.C. students wrap up their first full week in school.
The Education Ministry said in a statement 85 per cent of kindergarten to Grade 12 students have returned to classrooms.
