The Alberta government announced it has reached a tentative deal with the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and the Teachers Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) on Wednesday.
In a news release, the government said the first step of the collective bargaining process is now complete as the two parties have signed a Memorandum of Agreement.
Details of the agreement were not made public and will only be released once an agreement is ratified. However, Global News has confirmed the two-year deal includes a wage freeze and a new $75-million classroom improvement fund.
Teachers will still be able to move up the existing pay grid as they gain experience.
“We believe that we have reached an agreement that offers significant value for teachers and for public education,” ATA president Mark Ramsankar said in a statement. “Within it are some very important measures to enhance the conditions of practice for teachers that will allow them greater opportunity to focus on meeting the needs of their students.”
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Ramsankar said the new tentative contract addresses their main concerns of time and workload, by putting a cap on the amount of time teachers can be assigned to non-classroom duties such
as staff meetings, supervision, and staff-development days.
The cap is expected free up more time for teachers to focus on work directly related to the classroom, including lesson planning, student assessments, and phone calls to parents.
Educators also didn’t get increases for three of the four years under the previous contract, but Ramsankar says they appreciate the province is in rough financial times.
ATA members will vote on the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) online while school jurisdiction representatives will vote on whether or not to ratify it on May 24.
“The central agreement is the first step in the new collective bargaining model set up by the Public Education Collective Bargaining Act,” the government said. “Should the MoA be ratified, its contents will apply to all teachers in public, separate and francophone school authorities.
“After ratification, school jurisdictions will bargain with their local ATA representatives on local matters.”
— With files from The Canadian Press