A long-running legal dispute between the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and provincial government may come to an end on Thursday.
The Court of Appeal will release a judgement in ‘British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v. British Columbia’, a case initiated by the BCTF after a contract imposed on teachers in 2002.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has twice ruled that contract – which removed rules around class size and composition, and prohibited those issues from being bargained in the future – violated teachers’ charter rights. The most recent ruling by Justice Griffin in January 2014 assessed damages of $2 million in favour of the BCTF, and said the government must restore language around class size and composition to pre-2002 levels.
But the provincial government has twice appealed, arguing that not allowing them to regulate those issues takes away their ability to set education policy.
The government also won a stay of the ruling until the Court of Appeal judgement.
What a final ruling would mean became a key sticking point in last year’s teachers’ strike, when the government attempted to insert a clause, known as E80, that would supersede any court decision.
Eventually, both sides agreed to an Education Fund to deal with class size and composition issues, while agreeing to reopen the collective agreement if a final judgement favoured the BCTF.
The appeal court case began last October. A further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is still possible.
WATCH: UBC professor emeritus Charles Ungerleider explained the issues in the court of appeal case when it began last October
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