Teacher contract talks could resume

Province willing to go back to table with negotiations in arbitration

REGINA The Saskatchewan government is open to going back to the negotiating table with the province’s 13,500 teachers with a better contract offer.

Currently negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement are in binding arbitration.

But one of the main reasons why teachers elected to go to binding arbitration was because the province was reportedly not willing to budge on its opening position: that educators either take a 3.67-percent salary decrease, find comparable savings through reductions to employee benefit plans or take a 3.5-per-cent cut in total compensation through a combination of reductions.

Since January, when the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) requested negotiations go to binding arbitration, the Saskatchewan Party government has backed off its provincewide 3.5-per-cent reduction target — which was originally planned to save the province $250 million across the entire public sector.

“At the end of the day now, that was one of the primary reasons why the teachers wanted to go to arbitration. Whether or not they’re prepared to go back to the negotiating table now, that will be a discussion that we have to have,” Education Minister Gord Wyant said on Monday.

When the province’s 3.5-percent reduction plan was first announced, Sask. Party MLAs chose to reduce their salaries by the same amount as a sign of leadership. The rationale was that government MLAs would not ask any public sector employees to do anything they weren’t prepared to do themselves.

In April, the 3.5-per-cent reduction of MLA salaries was reversed.

Asked Monday if that means teachers should expect a better offer than a 3.5-per-cent reduction if they were to return to the negotiating table, Wyant said, “that would be safe to assume.”

When teachers were still at the table, they were seeking a one-percent increase to the current salary grid, plus increases in line with the consumer price index. But those close to negotiations also reported non-monetary proposals would be taking precedence.

That included educators wanting clearer language around a teacher’s duties and working hours.

Pat Maze, president of the STF, said it is common sense that the 3.5 per cent wouldn’t be on the table now and that it was the biggest sticking point during negotiations.

“We would go back to the table, for sure, if invited. However, the arbitrator’s process would continue alongside with that,” he said.

Because teachers break at the end of June, it would be difficult to get an agreement ratified over the summer months — meaning if the parties do go back to the negotiating table, they will have some time pressures to get something in place before school is out.

If an agreement negotiated at the table is not ratified, then the arbitrator’s decision — expected in September — would be binding.

NDP education critic Carla Beck said she is not surprised teachers were concerned with the request for a salary reduction, especially because MLAs have since reversed the 3.5-per-cent salary rollback and there is a “lack of respect” by the government for the job teachers are doing.