The negotiations are over and the agreement has been signed.
The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation announced on Sept. 29 that teachers had ratified the proposed provincial collective bargaining agreement for 2010-2013. The province-wide vote, which took place on Sept. 20, saw 12,637 teachers cast their ballot in hopes of coming to an agreement on the proposed contact.
Due to a stalemate over wages back in May, the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation and the government-trustee bargaining committee left their dispute in the hands of a special mediator. "The new agreement is based on the recommendations contained in the Special Mediator's Report released on July 2, 2011 and includes a mix of both general economic increases as well as special market adjustments for all Saskatchewan teachers."
The proposed contract? A salary increase of 5.5 percent over three years along with market adjustments based on the average salaries of teachers in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columba.
The result? A vote of 66.1 percent in favour of accepting the new deal.
For teachers, this means that the salary increases will occur as outlined in the special mediator's report and recommendations. Teachers will receive different increases dependent on their position on the salary grid.
For teachers at the bottom end of the pay scale, the market adjustment will be an additional five percent. Teachers at the top end of the grid will see a market adjustment of 3.34 percent.
For the teachers, this has been a long process stemming back to their first action on May 5. The withdrawal of full professional and voluntary services to take part in a one-day study and rally saw teachers province-wide leave their schools. The inability to reach an agreement by both parties led to a two-day withdrawal of services on May 25 and 26, followed by the withdrawal of voluntary services on May 30. The start of the arbitration period was days later on June 1, where failure to reach an agreement by June 10 resulted in the addition of a special mediator to the process.
The teachers have been without a contract since August of 2010 and therefore, will receive retroactive pay dating back to Sept. 1, 2010.
Gwen Dueck, chief spokesperson for the Teachers' Bargaining Committee, stated "On behalf of the Teachers' Bargaining Committee, I want to thank teachers for their engagement and commitment during this long and challenging process. Throughout this process, teachers continued to express their strong commitment to students, the publicly funded education system and to each other. We celebrate teachers' professional conduct and support for their colleagues."
