No pay raise, severance cut in new contract for N.L. teachers' union

Teachers in Newfoundland and Labrador have voted in favour of a new collective agreement with the provincial government.

According to the government, the deal includes:

• No wage increases.
  
• The payout and elimination of severance.
  
• Changes to post-retirement benefits.

The changes to severance will save about $25 million a year, according to a media release issued by the government Monday afternoon.

The new deal between the two sides comes after almost two years of bargaining.

"We continue to reach collective agreements that improve our fiscal position while recognizing the important contributions of our public service workforce," said Finance Minister Tom Osborne in a media release.

NLTA: best deal for these economic times

In its own media release, the NLTA which represents 6,000 members admitted the"the concessions obtained by government were a point of contention for the membership."

"It was felt that this was the best agreement that could be reached in this economic environment," said Dean Ingram, NLTA president.

Some of the highlights of the new deal cited by the NLTA include:

• Greater transparency in the hiring process.
  
• An extra guaranteed day of professional development.
  
• A new day for report card preparation.
  
• Replacement of principals when absent from school on district business.

Ingramsaid approximately 60 per cent of union members voted in favour of the new deal, and that a compromise was struck.

"We needed to ensure that our members at least had recognition of the work demands," he said in an interview with the St. John's Morning Show Tuesday.

Ingram added that while teachers are still doing work outside of the school day, the extra day for report card preparation will help ease that burden.

There will be no change to the length of the school year, he said.

Increased transparency in the hiring process is also something members have long clamored for, said Ingram.

He said it will now be easier for employees with seniority to transfer to other schools, and that positions that have been open for longer than 30 days will now be opened up to competition.

New contract expires next year

A tentative agreement was reached in January, but bothIngramandOsbornewere tight-lipped at the time about the details.

"We put forward our best negotiations based on what we believe was in the best interest of people in the province,"Osbornesaid at the time.

Ingramsaid the changes to severance payouts have also been echoed across other recent public service negotiations.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Association of Allied Health Professionals have all recently bargained with the Dwight Ball government.

While the new contract has been ratified, it will expire next year, as each contract is active for four years from the previous agreement's end date.

"We'll be forming a collective bargaining committee in the coming months which will reach out to our membership to have them inform us exactly what they want to see in the next round of negotiations," said Ingram.

The teachers' union has not had a contract since 2016 and has been operating under the previous one, which came into effect in late 2014.

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