SD52 support staff among those to sign off on ratified agreements

The Province of British Columbia has announced the successful conclusion to bargaining for all Kindergarten to Grade 12 support staff workers in the province, bringing to an end negotiations that saw the Ministry of Finance release the listings as each District ratified their contracts.

In the latest and final update from the province, it was noted that School District 52 and its 168 support employees are included among the last of the eight School Districts to sign off. 

The total number of agreements comes to 69 that have been settled under the Province's public sector bargaining mandate.

Some of the negotiated improvements from the contract include:

Funding for professional development 

A premium paid for employee orientations, as well as mileage for casual custodians; labour-market increases for specific job classifications 

Paid “release time” for educational assistants to attend professional development, or collaboration and peer mentorship.

Each agreement has a three year term in effect, backdated to July 1st of this year and set to expire on June 30, 2022.

A Wage increase of 2 per cent per year, as well as additional local funding was negotiated as part of the agreement to provide for what the province calls tangible improvements to service delivery.

The details on the agreement and some background to the  Public Sector Bargaining process in the province can be reviewed from the contract announcement from yesterday.

While the Province is celebrating their success at the bargaining table for support staff workers, there is still one outstanding issue for education in British Columbia and it's a large one, with negotiations seemingly at a bit of a standstill between the BC Public School Employers Association and the BCTF.

As we noted back in November, the Teachers had rejected the Mediators Report with few indications that talks are moving forward with much success to this point.

The dispute between the Teachers and the province has seen some focus put on local MLA's offices this fall, with members of the PRDTA making their views known at the Ocean Centre offices of  North Coast Jennifer Rice.

You can review some of the local back and forth on the contract negotiations from our archive feature here.

More items of note on education in Prince Rupert can be found from our archive page