Retirement Seminar and an Update

Hi Folks,
It is a bit for late Happy New Year and sadly a smidge early for a spring break wish – so – Happy January!

Retirement Seminar

And the good news is – ( well good news for those of us who have reached a certain elevated vantage point) we have just confirmed a Retirement Seminar for Saturday February 9th.

The facilitator will arrive on the Saturday morning flight so the seminar will probably begin at 11 a.m. We have booked the Quatse River Hatchery meeting facility for the seminar. The seminar will go for about 2.5 hours and he has indicated he would be happy to take any questions after the workshop. We will provide a lunch for folks attending.

So, to be brief:

Retirement Seminar
Saturday February 9th
11a.m. – 3p.m
Quatse Hatchery meeting facility
A lunch will be provided

Could you please register for the workshop by calling the VINTA Office or sending an e-mail. We need to get an idea of numbers.

Local Bargaining

Just before the Christmas break BCTF and BCPSEA came to a tentative agreement on establishing a framework for the next round of bargaining – set to begin this spring. There were three main parts to the deal.

• One item saw the establishment a committee on data. They would develop a common data source on things like labour market issues. There would be agreed to data on such items as average salaries, average class sizes and prep time. A common understanding on these issues would definitely help at the bargaining table.

• There was also agreement to begin negotiations as early as February and a process to find a mutually agreeable facilitator who could assist the process.

• Perhaps the most important part of the tentative deal was to move many items to be negotiated to local bargaining tables. Among the items to be negotiated locally would be Post and Fill, Lay-Off, Recall and Transfer, and a number of other issues. These are all items in our Collective Agreement we have not been able to discuss in almost 20 years.

• The so-called ‘big-ticket’ items (salary, benefits, class size and composition, prep time and paid leaves) would continue to be negotiated at a provincial table.

The tentative agreement was to be announced early in January. The BCTF was in favour of it, our local Executive Committee met and was in favour of the agreement and our local School Board also voted in favour of the agreement – in fact almost all school boards in the province approved the deal.

Unfortunately, one or two large urban districts expressed some concerns over the possibility of local bargaining. Hence, BCPSEA has put off making a formal decision until after their AGM in late January.

School Visits to discuss Local Bargaining Objectives

During the last round of bargaining we established our own local bargaining objectives. We created some language to support these objectives and then we went to a local table in a valiant attempt to negotiate said objectives.

We did actually achieve an Employment Equity agreement with the District however they saw this agreement as separate from local negotiations. As for the rest of our objectives – not so good. BCPSEA instructed all Districts not to engage in any local negotiations on issues from the ‘Provincial Matters’ list. Hence, nothing was accomplished.

The potential agreement with BCPSEA to move many of issues to local negotiations means we may actually be able to negotiate locally. Be still my beating heart!! The objectives we established for local negotiations last year have probably not changed significantly. We hope to get out to do a series of school visits in the next few weeks to discuss our local bargaining objectives and anything else we may want to see negotiated locally.

General Meeting – Wednesday January 30th – 4:30 Eagle View

This is our regularly scheduled January General Meeting. We will elect an additional delegate to attend the BCTF Annual General Meeting in March and we will continue the discussion about local objectives. We will also nominate and establish our local bargaining team. Anyone interested?? Fascinating work!!

Also, as a local, we are considerably smaller than we have ever been. However, we continue to try and maintain the same structures as we have always had. We have had an initial discussion of this at the Executive Committee. We hope to continue the discussion at the General Meeting. The plan is to try and bring some recommendations to our VINTA Annual General Meeting.

Worksafe B.C ruling on participation in intramural / lunch time sports

The following info came out recently circulated from the BCTF. It is the second ruling where a teacher has not been covered for an injury in an intramural game with students. It is a bit of a cautionary tale…!

In a WCB Review Division decision dated December 17, 2012 the WCB denied the claim of a teacher who injured his left knee while playing in an intramural soccer game during the lunch period. A fellow teacher injured in the very next game did have his claim accepted. The following factors were compelling in leading the Review Officer to conclude that the worker’s injury did not arise out of and in the course of employment:
· Participation in sporting activities is not normally considered part of a worker’s employment.
· Playing soccer is not part of the worker’s job.
· He did not receive instructions from his employer.
· His participation was voluntary.
· The activity occurred outside of normal working hours.
· Fitness was not a job requirement.
· The game was not supervised by an administrator.

We reiterate our advice for members to think twice before participating in fun, recreational activities outside of instructional time. WCB coverage is not a given.

We will be appealing the member’s claim to the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal.

Black Monday – January 28, 2013

This is the 11th anniversary of the Liberals stripping class size and composition language from our contracts. We have lived through a decade of cuts from this government. We have fought in the courts, through political action and job action to have that language restored. We have fought to have resources for our students restored.

Teachers across the province are choosing to wear black on Monday, January 28th.

The provincial budget will be tabled in February. This is one way for teachers to send a message to this government. A decade of cuts has hurt students!!!

Poverty and Education

After a decade of cuts to education and other social programs B.C. has the highest rate of child poverty in this country. That is unimaginable.

BCTF Research is conducting a survey in collaboration with the Antipoverty Action Group of the BCTF Committee for Action on Social Justice through thee 2012 Poverty and Education survey: A teacher’s perspective

About 100 teachers have completed the survey to date, providing very thoughtful responses about poverty and education issues. 500 more responses are needed from teachers across the province to have enough data to draw meaningful conclusions.

The BCTF has sent teachers across the province an e-mail and pdf poster to inform them about the survey.

The direct link to the survey is http://survey.bctf.ca/PovertyAndEducation2012/Poverty-And-Education-2012.htm

Fred Robertson
President
Vancouver Island North Teachers’ Association
lp85@bctf.ca