TORONTO – The Ontario Labour Relations Board has ruled that the union representing public elementary school teachers broke the law when it urged its members to withdraw from extracurricular activities.
Most of the province’s public school teachers stopped participating in non-classroom-related activities in protest of Bill 115, a controversial law that imposed two-year contracts on more than 126,000 public educators.
Two school boards – Trillium Lakelands and Upper Canada – challenged the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario’s decision to advise its members to stop participating in afterschool activities.
The OLRB ruled Thursday that the ETFO engaged in illegal strike action.
The labour board’s ruling only applies to ETFO’s actions within those boards.
ETFO had appealed to have the matter dropped because Bill 115 has since been repealed and teachers have already resumed extracurricular activities.
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