Teachers and job actions

January 9, 2002

What kind of legislation?

Back to work legislation can take different forms. It can impose the employer's last offer complete with contract stripping or it can appoint an arbitrator whose recommendations are binding. Of course a negotiated settlement would be best, but it appears that some form of legislation will soon be introduced. Before that is done, government ought to consider the consequences.

In the same week BC's teachers withdrew their voluntary services a WCB case hit the news with the rejection of a claim by a teacher who was hurt during a noon hour game in a school gym. The case is under appeal, but teachers everywhere are no doubt thinking that they are not only under valued but uninsured as they put in extra hours to supervise clubs, field trips and sports.

The government may be able to legislate an end to strike action, it may be able to strip provisions out of contracts, it may even impose a salary schedule that is lower than the employer's last offer, but it cannot force teachers to volunteer. If the government imposes the employer's last offer or worse, as it did in health care, there will be an urgent need for countless volunteer hours to fill the gap left by angered teachers.

The Campbell government passed a law saying that parents had a right to volunteer. A lot of people thought the School (Protection of Parent Volunteers) Amendment Act, 2001, was cheap politics. It is hard to find a school in the province that can find enough parents to participate.

On August 8th, Education Minister Christy Clark led debate on her volunteer bill saying:

"This bill recognizes the government's belief that schools are learning places first and working places second. The amendments made to the School Act by this bill will provide an entitlement for parents by spelling out in the act their right to volunteer in schools, provided that those volunteer services will not result in the displacement of a board employee. The legislation will allow parents to support staff and teachers and to enhance the services that they provide. It protects those services while at the same time ensuring that parents have access to their children's schools."

Parents have always been welcome in schools.

Is it possible that the government's political posturing has put education at risk?

The Campbell government needs to put the dispute with teachers to binding arbitration. Rather than imposing contract stripping provisions, what is needed is the cooling hand of a neutral third party.

January 6, 2002

Try Legislating School Spirit

Why would an employer bargain if it thought the government was going to use legislation to impose its last offer?

Governments in all jurisdictions, of all political stripes, from time to time legislate an end to job actions. However, such legislation usually appoints a third party, an arbitrator, to make binding recommendations. Turning to a third party puts both sides at risk if they choose to be unreasonable.

What the Campbell government did with BC's nurses and health professionals sets a dangerous precedent. In health care, the government used legislation to impose the employer's last offer.

It will be hard to return BC's schools to normal if class sizes are made larger, if special needs teachers are made dispensable, or if librarians and counselors are discarded by the stroke of a legislative pen. Government can legislate an end to job action but it cannot legislate the spirit and the moral that is needed to make schools work.