Voodoo accounting behind teachers’ strike
Contract negotiations are, at heart, accounting. One side wants this number; the other side wants that number. Let the bargaining begin.
But what happens when the opposing sides can’t agree on the math?
How do you reach a settlement when you can’t even agree on the methodology used to reach a number?
In the case of the teachers’ strike, you don’t.
Consensus has been impossible. Aside from nonexistent negotiations between the B. C. Teachers’ Federation and the B. C. Public School Employers’ Association, and the net- zero wage increase the provincial government has imposed, the two parties’ estimates of the proposed contract are egregiously, hilariously out of whack. This matters. When tax dollars are at stake, the public deserves to know the real costs of a proposed contract, if only to make an educated choice about which side to support. It’s our money, after all.
In this case, the disparity is huge. Consider a table of the opposing estimates the BCPSEA posted on its website.
One figure that jumps off the page is the estimated cost of the proposed increase in teachers’ preparation times — those blocks of time in a teacher’s school day needed to prepare lessons. The BCTF wants 150 minutes of prep time for elementary teachers, up from the current 90 minutes on average, and a doubling of the present allotment of prep time for secondary teachers.
According to the BCPSEA’S chart, which uses figures supplied to it by the BCTF, the BCTF estimated the cost of increased prep time in the first year of the
contract at $ 78,761,208.
The BCPSEA, on the other hand, estimated the cost for new prep times at — wait for it — $ 223,510,000. That’s a difference of $ 144,748,792. That’s a ton of tax dollars. And that’s just for one year.
Or consider the difference in estimates for the proposed three- per- cent increase in salary. You would think that arriving at a dependable figure would be a simple matter of accounting, since the salaries and benefits of every teacher in the province are known quantities.
But no: The BCTF costs out that first- year three- per- cent increase at $ 65,178,352.
The BCPSEA costs it out at $ 82,279,342, a figure, the BCPSEA notes in the chart, that includes wage- sensitive benefits.
“We invited the BCTF to provide us with the methodology it used to arrive at their figures,” said BCPSEA spokeswoman Deborah Stewart, “but they declined.”
( Attempts to get a comment from the BCTF by deadline Wednesday were unsuccessful.)
Extrapolating from those first-year figures, the BCPSEA estimated the total cost of the threeyear contract to be just over $ 2.06 billion. Using the figures the BCTF supplied to it for the first- year estimates, the BCPSEA extrapolated that the BCTF’S estimate for the total cost of the three- year contract would come in at just over $ 1.3 billion. The difference? About $ 755 million. As a lay person who has no knowledge of accounting, it would be impossible for me to say which of the two estimates is the more accurate — though I have my suspicions.
What is certain is that such a wide disparity in estimates casts doubt on the whole bargaining process.
These are two public parties battling on a public stage for public support ( not to mention money), yet the difference in estimates muddies what should be a transparent process.
“This has been a continuing problem in these disputes,” said Kenneth Thornicroft, a University of Victoria professor of law and employment relations.
“It doesn’t assist the negotiations to have such differences in methodology and estimates. In some cases, it seems like voodoo economics.”
Thornicroft, who did his doctoral thesis on teachers’ bargaining, suggested a “fact- finding” auditor is sometimes used in public sector labour negotiations like these to establish cost estimates that best approximate real costs. Perhaps, he suggested, that might be a duty the auditor- general’s ministry could consider.
And in some U. S. states, he said, there are “sunshine laws” that establish rules for public sector negotiations. In effect, he said, those negotiations take place in public, where both sides have to account for cost estimates and demands.
“I think it would be good from the public’s point of view,” Thornicroft said.
“But would it help the two parties come to a deal in this case? I doubt it. They can’t agree on the day of the week.”