Contract headed to binding arbitration

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) application to take its negotiations over a new contract to binding arbitration has been approved, and an arbitration board has been put in place.

In January, negotiations between Saskatchewan’s 13,500 teachers and the province stalled to the point where the teachers’ side applied for binding arbitration.

At the time, STF president Pat Maze said an impasse had been reached.

“Talks haven’t been going great,” he said, adding that the province refused to discuss workplace issues that are “important to teachers.”

“The government seems to want to take a very narrow scope on what can be negotiated and what can’t be negotiated,” he said, adding that included certain items — like assignable work hours, duties of a teacher and workplace safety — that go “far beyond items of salary.”

An agreement between the STF and the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA), which employs the province’s teachers, expired on Aug. 31, 2017.

In March of that year, the STF opted for binding arbitration in the event of an impasse.

An arbitrator’s decision would be final and binding for both parties.

In November, the government was proposing a 3.67-per-cent salary decrease, that comparable savings be found through reductions to employee benefit plans, or that a 3.5-per-cent cut in total compensation happen through a combination of reductions.

Teachers, meanwhile, were seeking a one-per-cent increase to the current salary grid, plus increases in line with the consumer price index.

Both parties were proposing a one-year contract, but at that time an impasse was largely characterized as inevitable.