School board still waiting for decision on extracurriculars
Says OLRB is taking too long to deal with teachers’ union
The Upper Canada District School Board worries the Ontario Labour Relations Board is taking too long decide whether to issue a ceaseand-desist order preventing a teachers’ union from advising members not to participate in voluntary activities.
The school board, which serves communities in a horseshoe around Ottawa and operates schools in Carleton Place, Perth, Brockville, Cornwall and Rockland, appeared before the OLRB on Jan. 25 alongside the Trillium Lakelands District School Board to argue that it constituted an illegal strike activity when the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario advised its members in a January 14th memo they should not be involved in the likes of coaching sports teams and leading clubs.
The UCDSB believes the union’s position was unlawful since a contract had been imposed on the province’s teachers by the Liberal government, following months of labour unrest.
“We respect the process that OLRB Chair Bernard Fishbein is following before announcing his decision. Just the same, we are concerned that it is taking this much time to receive that decision,” said Upper Canada Board chair Greg Pietersma in a Friday release.
While 36 of the board’s schools are reporting extracurricular activity has returned to normal, Pietersma said, seven schools are still completely without extracurriculars.
“Our communities, students and staff need the clarity of a decision by the OLRB. There is a lot of work to do once we get a decision to heal all of the frustrations created by the Ministry’s mishandling of this process,” Pietersma said.
OLRB solicitor Voy Stelmaszynski said there was no timeline for the labour board to reach a decision, and said rumours that a decision would soon be delivered didn’t come from the OLRB.
(The UCDSB had previously issued a media release saying it expected a decision this week.)
Stelmaszynski declined to comment on Friday’s statement by the school board.