Education Minister Don McRae says the head of the B.C. public school teachers union is wrong in her belief that class size and class composition issues will not be among the working conditions negotiated in the provincial government's 10-year contract proposal.
B.C. Teachers Federation president Susan Lambert was critical of Premier Christy Clark's plan for the longterm deal when the government revealed details of the proposal on Thursday. Clark has been promoting the idea as a way to ensure labour peace for teachers in B.C. public schools for the next decade.
"The BCTF is claiming that the government's proposed framework 'ignores the ruling of the B.C. Supreme Court that teachers have the right to bargain working conditions, such as class size and class composition,'" said McRae, in an email sent to The Citizen.
"This is false and the proposed framework offers no basis for this conclusion. As the BCTF quite properly points out, the government's own Bill 22 allows for these issues to be negotiated. The government and its education partners fully expect to negotiate class size and composition issues irrespective of the length of the agreement. Teachers have the right to negotiate class size and composition whether it is towards a two-year contract or a 10-year contract."
The BCTF believes the government plans to remove class size and class composition issues from the negotiating process.
"I think what they are doing is asking us to voluntarily agree to having it go to a policy table in order to get a 10-year deal," said BCTF president Susan Lambert. "The two key objectives of teacher bargaining are working conditions and our salaries and compensation, and they're gone from the bargaining table, and in return we get a 10-year deal. Where's the win here?"
Under the terms of Clark's plan, which are contingent on a 10-year agreement, teachers would be given a formal role in education policy decisions, they would help determine how a $100 million Priority Education Investment Fund would be spent in the third year of the agreement, and salary increases would be indexed according to an average of what other public sector unions receive.
Bargaining on a new collective agreement could begin as early as Feb. 4. That date is dependent on results of ratification votes this weekend on a framework agreement between the BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers' Association (the government's bargaining agent).
Lambert says it is up to the government to discuss with the teachers' union how the 10-year contract would work and said Clark has to set a better example in being open about the plan.
"[Clark] is the only person who was an minister of education who has refused to meet with the BCTF and we've been calling on her to meet with the BCTF since she became premier," said Lambert.
"It was quite precious to hear from Minister McRae that we'd got it wrong. He could have given the courtesy and respect to discuss this paper with us prior to publishing it in the press. Nobody has explained it to us, we never had any consultation on its development, and all we are doing is reading what's put in front of us and trying to understand it."
McRae has said he is willing to take on that role.
"This confusion reinforces how important it is for the parties to sit down together so the BCTF can fully explore and understand the government's proposed framework," said McRae. "It would be unfortunate for B.C. students and families if we allowed misunderstandings to prevent us from exploring any potential path to labour peace."
