TORONTO – Ontario will have to shell out $56.7 million to the Canadian Union of Public Employees, if workers ratify a deal to compensate them for the government violating their rights.
The deal comes after a judge ruled last year that the government “substantially interfered with meaningful collective bargaining” in 2012 legislation that imposed contracts on teachers and education workers.
Several unions took the government to court over the legislation known as Bill 115 that froze some of their wages and limited their ability to strike, and the judge sided with them, but left the question of a remedy up to the government and unions to decide.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation was the first to get a remedy agreement for about $50 million.
CUPE says today that if its members ratify its deal, $56.7 million would be paid out over time to potentially 60,000 workers who were employed during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.
About 2,700 education workers represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union are set to get $2.75 million for their remedy.
Meanwhile, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario says it hasn’t been able to agree on a remedy with the government, so it is going back to court.
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