Sask. teachers lifting work-to-rule, bargaining to resume next week

The Saskatchewan Teacher‐ s' Federation says teachers across the province will suspend all job action, with plans now in place to head back to the bargaining ta‐ ble with the provincial gov‐ ernment.

Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill confirmed at a news conference in Saskatoon Friday morning that negotia‐ tions will resume next week.

"We'll see them at the bar‐ gaining table," Cockrill said. "Everybody in this province wants to come to an agreement."

Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation president Saman‐ tha Becotte said during a news conference Friday the situation changed very quick‐ ly.

She confirmed teachers will stand down on job action at midnight as an act of good faith and won't take further job action as long as talks are being held.

WATCH | Province head‐ ing back to bargaining ta‐ ble with Sask. teachers:

Negotiations are sched‐ uled to start on Tuesday.

"We're ready to work throughout the day," said Be‐ cotte. "I hope these are 12hour days. I hope we're get‐ ting down to the conversa‐ tions that need to be had so that we can get to a resolu‐ tion as soon as possible."

Becotte said she wants to offer certainty to guardians and students in the months and weeks ahead.

Cockrill said the school year could be extended, de‐ pending on how bargaining goes.

Teachers in Saskatchewan began job action in mid-Janu‐ ary with one-day provincewide strikes, fol‐ lowed by a series of rotating strikes and withdrawals of voluntary duties.

They've been operating under work-to-rule job action since Monday.

That's meant no lunch su‐ pervision, and teachers be‐ ginning their shift 15 minutes before the first bell rings and ending 15 minutes after the last.

It also meant no voluntary services being provided by teachers, affecting extra-cur‐ ricular activities like sports, drama, music, band, science clubs, intramurals, re‐ hearsals, student leadership activities, planning for gradu‐ ation celebrations, books fairs, and other clubs and ac‐ tivities.

The announcement that teachers will suspend the job action came as students gathered at the provincial legislature on Friday in a show of support for educa‐ tors.

More than 150 students from high schools across Regina and from out of town came carrying signs and well wishes.

"Teachers spend more time with their kids usually than the parents do," said Emily Lygouriatis, a high school student from Lums‐ den, just northwest of Regina.

"I think they have a huge impact on children. So they definitely need more sup‐ port."

Sticking point dressed: STF president

Becotte confirmed Friday that the government's nego‐ tiating team presented an of‐ fer to come back to the bar‐ gaining table, adding that the province has given their ne‐ gotiators a new mandate.

At the end of March, the province proposed a memo‐ randum of understanding to the union that laid out an ac‐ ad‐ countability framework meant to ensure proposed education funding would go to benefiting students.

But negotiations fell apart earlier this month after the province declined to add the following phrase to the mem‐ orandum:

"The parties agree that the Multi-Year Funding Agreement and the account‐ ability framework will be fol‐ lowed and honoured."

On Friday, Becotte de‐ clined to provide specifics on how the union's previous concerns are set to be ad‐ dressed. She said the lan‐ guage is still being worked on.

"We have seen a willing‐ ness to ensure that there is language that provides those guarantees and provides bet‐ ter assurances around sup‐ porting students in their classrooms and around ac‐ countability," Becotte said.

As part of this year's budget, the Ministry of Edu‐ cation dedicated $356.6 mil‐ lion in annual funding to ad‐ dressing classroom supports, an increase of $45 million from last year's budget. The funding beyond this fiscal year is subject to appropria‐ tion, meaning it could be re‐ moved during a future budget.

Cockrill said negotiations next week will not address class complexity or class size.

"The latest piece on offer here is an accountability framework which really will offer teachers to have a voice in terms of feedback to local divisions on how dollars are allocated within local school divisions," said Cockrill.

In a video posted to social media, Premier Scott Moe described the decision to re‐ sume negotiations as "good news."

Moe said the teachers' federation has taken the "reasonable position" that governments and school boards honour their commit‐ ments within a contract.

"Our government is pre‐ pared to see this language in‐ cluded in the contract," said

Moe.

"I'm very hopeful that it will form the very basis for bargaining a new agreement that works for all sides and ensures our kids receive the best possible education."