Tentative deal for school support staff

School support staff in the K-12 system are the latest B.C. publicsector workers to reach a tentative deal with government — months before their current contract expires.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees confirmed on Monday that the deal calls for two per cent wage increases in each year of a three-year agreement.

The contract, if approved, will run from July 1, 201 9 to June 30, 2022.

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, which bargains for the province’s 60 school boards, said the provincial framework agreement was reached on June 14 after six days of bargaining.

If adopted by all school boards and their local unions, the deal will cover about 34,000 education assistants, custodians, bus drivers and other support staff.

The general wage increases are believed to be in line with those achieved by the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union and two other public sector unions last week.

CUPE, which represents most of the unionized school support staff, said the deal includes: • Language on workplace violence and the right to refuse unsafe work. • A skills-enhancement fund. • Creation of a joint occupational health and safety task force as well as a provincial labour management committee.

CUPE said more details will be released once union members have a chance to review the agreement.

Alan Chell, who chairs the BCPSEA board of directors, said there seems to be a desire by public sector unions in the province to begin bargaining well before their current contracts expire.

“CUPE approached us, so we went to the table with them and we met six times over a two-week period,” he said. “CUPE started negotiations by saying: ‘There’s no pressure, because we are a year early.’ But if there’s a deal there that makes sense for their members, they would hope to achieve it. It’s good for boards of education, it’s good for the CUPE members and we’re pretty pleased with what we mutually achieved.”

Chell said school boards still have to bargain local issues with their unions, but the provincial framework likely will form a major part of any final agreements. “The provincial table is where we set things like the overall wages, terms, some benefits, some policy pieces … things that are more suited to be discussed at a provincial level,” he said.