Premier-in-waiting Kevin Falcon recently made the statement: "I want to see good teachers rewarded."
Under such a system, one might assume that a few teachers would be rewarded with additional pay for their supposed superior work, whereas the vast majority of teachers would receive the basic pay negotiated at the bargaining table.
That particular archaic ploy by employers has been around for at least all of my 50 working years.
What we must always pay particular attention to with these scams is that we read the face behind the mask, which in reality is a scam to dramatically reduce the wages of all teachers.
Having sent two children through our school system, it is my contention the vast majority of B.C.'s teachers are well trained and proficient.
However, the pay-scale-system for teachers that our wannabe premier is trying to sell us would work a little bit different than what Falcon is trying to make us believe.
Having been part of the workforce for more than 50 years as a tradesman in B.C., I have seen the pay-scale-system implemented on a few occasions, and on all occasions it worked the same way.
In this instance, the government employer would first negotiate a basic pay in line with other provinces, which would be fair enough in itself, but that wage scale is pending on an additional clause.
The pending clause is a sliding scale downwards from the basic pay, which they say they want to look after their benevolent reward-system for teachers for taking various training programs and the like.
But once the employer has successfully negotiated the basic pay and the downwards sliding scale, the trap has been set.
One might assume our super teachers would then have an extra 10 per cent slipped into their pay envelope. The reality of the pay-scale-system is that very few teachers will then be designated super teachers and only they will receive the "basic pay," while all the rest will receive less than basic pay, as per the downwards sliding pay scale.
As I mentioned above, this scam by employers is nothing new. It's just something some employers periodically blow the dust off and run up the flag pole again.
John Francis
Prince George
