James Lewis | Email news tips to jlewis@cknw.com
6/26/2012
A deal has been done...
The BC Teachers' Federation and their employer have come to terms on a new agreement, after weeks of negotiations with mediator Charles Jago.
The deal expires June 30th of 2013, right after the next BC election, and is retroactive to July of 2011.
Education Minister George Abbott says the agreement is in line with the province's net-zero mandate.
"It gives us some things to still work on. One of the elements in this agreement is a letter of understanding that the parties will engage and engage constructively to try to negotiate a mutually agreeable set of changes around professional development, teacher evalation, post and fill layoff and recall... all issues which are respectively important to government, B.C.P.S.E.A. and to the B.C.T.F."
For its part, the Teachers' Federation says its executive will recommend ratification of the deal.
President Susan Lambert says small gains have been made.
"There's some modests gains on benefits. We haven't had benefits improvements from teachers in this province for 20 years, so there was a bit of that... and there was a few improvements in terms of our leave provisions in our collective agreement. But that's all... it's a very bare bones agreement, and teachers deserve more."
Lambert adds the union was "compelled into the process under threat of huge fines and further punitive legislation."
the terms of the agreement run through next June.
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