Teacher team approves deal with province

A “refreshing” return to give-andtake bargaining is what led to a fair deal with Kathleen Wynne’s government, says the president of the province’s high school teachers’ union.

Ken Coran won the approval of 96 per cent of his local bargaining unit presidents Thursday with an agreement that boosts sick day payouts to newer teachers and reduces the number of unpaid days off to one or two, rather than three.

Results of the teachers’ ratification vote will be available April 18.

The deal was hammered out with government officials over eight days, with stretches of 20 hours at times. It gives local school boards the flexibility to find other ways to save money so they can afford the paid professional development days Coran called important for training teachers to best serve students. Those days would have been all-but eliminated with the unpaid time off.

“We worked really, really hard and I think we have reached a deal that’s fair to the maximum number of people,” Liberal Education Minister Liz Sandals said in an interview. “I think everybody has put a tremendous amount of goodwill into this.”

The agreement with the 60,000member Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is similar to promises to the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and has “no new money,” Sandals said.

While she would not say how much the agreed items cost, even when extended to all teacher unions, she said: “I am 100 per cent confident that we will not go beyond the available savings.”

Those savings were unexpected and discovered by the Education Ministry at its March 31 fiscal yearend; they fund all the improvements offered to teachers, Sandals said without providing the amount.

The deal with secondary teachers comprises “amendments” to the controversial two-year contracts imposed on teachers by the province earlier this year under Bill 115.

The fewer unpaid days off could be funded by letting teachers volunteer to take more time off, or boards could offer early retirement, replacing those teachers with newer teachers who earn lower salaries.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative party has said the deal will cost taxpayers $63 million and accused the Liberals of turning their backs on their austerity plan. The OSSTF agreement covers public secondary teachers as well as support staff, including education assistants, early childhood educators and some clerical staff.

Coran called the “win-win” deal “fair for our members, the government, taxpayers and students.”