Teachers’ unions launch challenges to wage-cap law
TORONTO Ontario’s four major teachers’ unions said Thursday they are launching Charter challenges to a law capping public sector wage increases, arguing that it violates their collective bargaining rights.
Tensions were already high between teachers and the government, with the imposition of higher class sizes and mandatory e-learning announced before the wage-cap bill, and growing labour unrest over the past several weeks.
The court challenge marks the latest salvo, filed on the last day before politicians break from the legislature for two months.
The Progressive Conservative government passed the law as contract talks were just starting, and the unions say it was an extraordinary interference in the process.
“This legislation is a direct affront to bargaining rights and the education profession,” said Sam Hammond, the president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. “By attempting to legislate unilateral limits on compensation growth, the government is turning its back on the collective bargaining process.”
The unions, representing teachers in public elementary, public high school, Catholic and French boards, say they are each filing a separate constitutional challenge because each of them have issues unique to their members.
“Let me be clear: this is not about money,” said Remi Sabourin, president of the French teachers’ union. “It’s about the right to negotiate without government interference.”
The law caps all public sector salary increases at one per cent per year for the next three years. Treasury Board president Peter Bethlenfalvy said he is confident the law is constitutional. He noted that it still allows for employees to get raises for seniority, performance or increased qualifications.
“I think it’s fair, it’s reasonable, it’s time-limited and I wouldn’t have proposed it if I didn’t think it was defendable in the courts,” he said. “It does not impede the collective bargaining process or the right to strike. It does not impose a wage freeze or a wage rollback and it does not impose any job losses.”
Bethlenfalvy suggested it was the most reasonable of three options to deal with the province’s deficit — it was either this, increasing taxes, or firing front-line workers.
The president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation said he questions the deficit figures the province has offered up as justification for the wage restraint and various budget cuts.
“There is no crisis that requires such an extraordinary interference in the bargaining process and a violation of our charter rights,” said Harvey Bischof.
High school teachers have staged one-day strikes, elementary teachers are in a work-to-rule campaign, the Catholic teachers are in a legal strike position later this month, and the French teachers are soon conducting strike votes.
The Canadian Press