Court Ruling

We last spoke the day after Justice Griffin"s ruling - there was happiness and joy throughout the province.  Since then, the government has begun the appeal process and there has been media and conversations daily.  We are providing links here to information for members to peruse about the ruling specifically, and hope to post soon our newly restored language.  Stay tuned, meanwhile for your enjoyment and better understanding:

Links

• Read the full judgment here. 
• Get the facts straight. Evidence to challenge the Ministry of Education news release on decision to appeal BC Supreme Court ruling (Feb 6, 2014)
• In the media 
• BCTF President Jim Iker’s opinion piece in The Sun (Jan 29, 2014) 
• BCTF news release (Jan 27, 2014)
• Selected quotations from the decision  
• Slide presentation: Selected quotations from the BC Supreme Court ruling  
• BCTF President responds to news of government appeal 

Ratification Vote

We are very happy to report that the ratification vote for the new local language was successful.  This means that any new Articles agreed to by the employer and the union are now in effect.  We outlined the language for you at the General Meetings.

Primarily, the largest changes the members should ensure occurs are the time frame negotiated regarding the length of staff meetings and the right to the representation for members in meetings with the employer.

Staff meetings should not last more than 90 minutes following the dismissal of students at the school where members work.  Staff reps should discuss this with the principals to ensure we are compliant with the language.  Our bargaining contemplated the fact that this should not result in more frequent staff meetings - agendas are to be posted one week in advance, which should allow time for organization of topics.

Members should also note the new language around representation - we have negotiated language which entitles them to request union representation at any meeting with the employer.  Principals need to be given notice if you have asked a union representative to accompany you to a meeting.

The union is making a presentation to the employer on establishing an LBGTQ policy on Tuesday, February 4th - Karin Hawkins and myself will be endeavoring to finally see the policy in place.  We had negotiated language agreeing to meet to develop this policy.

We will try to blog about other language in the next few weeks, and ask that the language is drafted into the resource section of our webpage - please call the office if you have any questions.

Benefit Information

If members are seeking information regarding Benefits, the websites where they can possibly find what they are seeking are outlined below:

If members are looking for information about the standardized provincial Extended Health Benefits Plan, the best source of information is still the website that Pacific Blue Cross created for teachers at www.pac.bluecross.ca/teachers/.

On the website, members will find an overview of the plan, an FAQ page, and a page of useful links, as well as a compact one-page summary of the plan benefits.

The direct link to the one-page summary is www.pac.bluecross.ca/collat/client/drugchanges/teachers/bcpsea_ehc_rates.pdf.

If members would like more details, they can sign in to CARESnet at https://caresnet.pac.bluecross.ca/CARESnet/, where they will be able to view their claims history and, under “Plan Information,” will be able to view and print the full details of the plan.

We have been informed by the employer that the contact for Benefits in the SD 8 address is now Rita Robertson.  Her email address is rrobertson@sd8.bc.ca and her phone number is 1-250-354-505-7048 (local 7048)

Madness

 It is that time of year again – no, not New Year or end of semester.  It is FSA madness time again.  Teachers know the tests are a waste of classroom time, often invalid, and frequently stressful for students. 

We have been frustrated by this district’s insistence on having all students write and their apparent disregard for parent’s request that their child be withdrawn from the FSAs.   It would be easy for us to decide to let the issue be resolved at the provincial level, and during the last election, that seemed it might be possible. However, no agreement has been reached to assess students provincially in a random manner – a method to ensure the Ministry get the information it needs regarding students/curriculum.  Many districts respect parent requests – Vancouver students do not have to write the FSAs, for example.  Their Board has realized that the FSA test does little more than indicate social status, and has very little to do with the individual student’s abilities or needs.

We have been told that tests will happen at schools in this District from Jan 13 to Feb 21.  The BCTF has asked us once again to take a stand on the FSA testing madness.  We will be placing an ad in the paper advising parents to withdraw their child from the test.  We will be providing each grade 4 and grade 7 teacher with an envelope containing the same advice.  Teachers can choose to send the envelope home or not.  We will also advise teachers that should a parent want to withdraw their child and the parent lets the teacher know the principal is not allowing the withdrawal, the parent’s concern should go to the District Parent Advisory Committee.  (This committee often provides assistance when parents have concerns or conflicts at school.)

Things to Check

As the year comes to an end, it might be a good idea to check a few things and to get organized for the new year.

Have you checked your pay slip recently?  We helped to organize and attended a New Teacher Orientation recently, and the new teachers were particularly interested in a section called Payslip 101.  We were impressed with their focus, and it reminded us that all members should be paying attention to their own payslips as intently.  Many of you will notice a slight decrease in your take home pay in January, and each year we get questions regarding this pattern.  Your payslip will show an increase in any area which maxes out during the year - EI, for example.

We always advise members to keep a copy of their September payslip, and to record their absences throughout the year.  The employer system which tracks your absences actually lags a wee bit behind because pay is processed a few days before the end of the month.  Therefore, if you are absent in the last few days of the month, your sick leave entitlement may show as more than what you actually have left to use.  If you want an accurate record of your sick days, keep your own record based on the September amount minus the days you know you have used.

And this is a good time to remind you that if you going to run out of sick leave - if you have fewer than 10 days left in your sick leave, you should apply for SIP (Salary Indemnity Plan), which is a BCTF insurance plan you see noted on the pay slip as a deduction from your pay.  SIP ensures you receive money even when you have no sick leave days left.  Call the office for help with this if you need it.

The amount you receive for pay is based on your qualifications and your years of experience - check page 106 in the contract which shows the amount of your yearly salary - divide the number by 10 for your monthly pay.  You might also note we have had no raise since 2010.

Members at the orientation had so many questions, and there are many more things even experienced teachers need to know about their pay.  If you have any questions, call the office and we will try to help you.
We will try to find some time to post more regarding this topic - meanwhile, a quick tip for organizing for the new year.  Prepare a folder in which to keep any letters from the District - this really helps you when you are wondering about any employment history like, "How much of a leave did I take in 2005?"  Or, "When did I take a leave?"  In the same folder keep a copy of the pay slip for September and June of every school year...

A final piece of "organizing for the New Year" - - please follow the BCTF updates on Provincial Bargaining - you will need to access the information through the membership portal.  It is really important that you follow this carefully.

Here We Are Again

So where to start...it has been awhile since we last posted ---local bargaining, provincial elections, and provincial bargaining filled the spring and through to the end of the year.  Just a few things on our plates.

And then we had a summer break.  Here we are back in the classrooms - can you even remember what a glorious summer it was?

Classrooms may have changed for you, or they may be the same.  Bargaining is still happening - at least at the provincial level. The government has announced a plan to change the face of bargaining, and threats of an imposed 10 year contract have been in the news.  We were prepared early in the school year to support our CUPE brothers and sisters, and know that the provincial CUPE bargaining has an offer on the table, but also know that locally CUPE is still struggling with attempts by the employer to strip their contract.  The BCTF has returned to court to seek resolution regarding our own stripped contract language - something we all believed had already been dealt with in a previous court case.

All of these issues aside, we know you are back working with students and doing your best to ensure that this year will be a positive experience for all. During school visits we have seen that you are positive and that you know the job we do makes a difference.

We are looking forward to Jim Iker, president of the BCTF, attending our first General Meeting on Tuesday, October 8th at the Creston Hotel.  We will see you there

Lunch Time Meetings

We usually get questions when a member believes there may be some language in the contract which will clarify a position - and the fact is that many questions are not answered easily by the contract. One which was easily answered recently was regarding our duties and responsibilities at lunch time.  The answer is found in Article D.22 which was fought for and achieved in previous negotiations.  We went on strike to get that language.  When I started teaching many years ago,  teachers were assigned duty at lunch and principals often called meetings at lunch time.  Not all locals were successful in their attempt to ensure teachers had a lunch free of school responsibility, but this contact was.  We inform members that they do not have to attend meetings or duty at lunch times, unless it is an emergency. 
Seems simple - but what if the member informs the union that members at the school agreed to come to the meetings?  The contract speaks clearly again, members cannot break the contract.  It is an agreement we have signed, and just as we do not want the employer to break the contract, we do not want members to break any conditions in the contract. 
Does that mean teachers cannot meet with each other and discuss professional issues?  No, we do that all the time.  What we cannot do is decide as a group to ignore the language - it makes it very easy for the employer to argue we do not need that language.  Would any of us like to have the employer argue we need noon hour meetings, and since teachers agree to meet at lunch time anyways, we can just eliminate the language?  We need to be very clear that we will not agree to organize or participate at lunch time meetings with the employer which deal with student or classroom issues -we risk losing the right to a duty free lunch if we do.    If you believe we should negotiate the removal of this clause, and want to have lunch hour time as part of your duties, please bring that suggestion to the Special General Meeting on Feb 21, 2013.  Something tells me it will be a lively conversation.