Kathleen Wynne says Ontario teachers pay could be docked

Ontario elementary teachers and some support staff will have their pay docked if they don't stop their work-to-rule campaigns, the premier announced Friday, as the elementary teachers threatened to withdraw from extracurriculars.

Bargaining with the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and the unions representing some support staff will resume after representatives met Friday with Premier Kathleen Wynne. She has given them until Nov. 1 to stop their work-to-rule campaigns or they will face sanctions.

"Children's lives are being negatively affected, so parents and families are understandably frustrated," Wynne said. "Schools are increasingly dirty and activities that are important to students and parents such as completion of report cards are not taking place.

The government won't give that permission until Nov. 1, which would then trigger five days' notice of the impending action, Wynnesaid.

"If by Nov. 1 one of two things has not happened, thengovernment will give permission: either tentative agreements arereached and all job actions are stopped, or all job actions arestopped and do not resume as talks continue."

Wynne said she hopes deals can be reached by then because "eightdays is a long time in the world of bargaining." The government isnot considering imposing contracts, she said.

ETFO president Sam Hammond said his members won't respond tothreats. They're not backing down from their extracurricularwithdrawal next week even though bargaining is resuming, he said.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown called Wynne'sdeadline a "distraction" from controversy surrounding a$2.5-million payout to teachers' unions -- the ones the governmenthas already reached deals with -- to compensate for extra costsduring lengthy negotiations.

"They know that it's being widely decried around the province onevery talk radio, every newspaper and TV show," he said. "Peopleare upset with the government. They think it's inappropriate...Noone believes you're simply going to ballpark or guess what $1million means in negotiation costs. It's disrespectful totaxpayers."

No receipts

Education Minister Liz Sandals said Thursday that the governmentdidn't ask for receipts or invoices before the money was given tothe Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, the OntarioEnglish Catholic Teachers' Association and the French teachers'union.

The negotiations were so lengthy this round because of a newsystem the Liberal government introduced. There is a costassociated, said Wynne, but why it's up to the government to pay theunions' costs, she didn't say.

"The fact is the government isn't covering all of the costs,"she said.

During that time the parties were involved in talks aimed atcentralizing the bargaining process, which eventually led to theLiberals' new legislation, the education ministry said in astatement late Friday.

"In the initial round under the (new legislation), as part ofthe extensive process, assisting with costs was necessary to ensurethe transformation was effective for long-term sustainability."

Money not tracked

"I don't know the details well enough," she said in aninterview with The Canadian Press. "But it didn't come from studentprogramming."

She also couldn't say whether the government has compensatedother public sector unions for negotiation costs."I can't give you that information because I don't know. I don'tknow the details of that," she said.

"I'm not saying we're not aware of it, I'm just saying I don'thave the numbers in my hand."

Government staff later said it doesn't provide support to unionsbargaining for workers directly employed by the Ontario government,but for the broader public sector, "this type of information is notcontained in collective agreements and there is no central placewhere this information is tracked."

OSSTF president Paul Elliott said it is always part of thecompensation package.

"It's been part of the process as long as I've been doing thisand it's really nothing new," he said. "It's not a sweetener. It'spart of the whole complete bargaining process."

-- with files from Keith Leslie