TORONTO – Ontario’s English Catholic teachers have secured a two-year contract extension, giving the Liberal government one less potentially contentious round of negotiations leading into the next election.
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association is the fourth education union to agree to such a deal, joining the French teachers’ union, and two support staff unions, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The current contracts with teachers and support staff are set to expire this August, so if ratified, these new deals would last until August 2019 – well after the June 2018 election.
READ MORE: Ontario government looking into potential contract extensions for teachers
The government has not disclosed any terms before those deals are ratified and as it talks with the other teachers’ unions.
OECTA president Ann Hawkins says the agreement is “in the best interests of teachers and their students.”
The last round of negotiations were contentious, with support staff and elementary teachers staging work-to-rule campaigns and the government threatening to dock their pay.
READ MORE: ‘Net zero’ labour deal with Ontario teachers actually cost province extra $300M
The government also took heat during the last set of talks for the costs incurred during the lengthy bargaining, as three unions were promised $2.5 million to cover their negotiation costs.
Contract extension talks arose as part of discussions with education-sector unions over a court ruling that said the government violated their collective bargaining rights.
Legislation in 2012, known as Bill 115, imposed contracts on teachers that froze some of their wages and limited their ability to strike, so five unions took the government to court. The judge sided with them, but left the question of a remedy up to the government and unions to decide.
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