Education minister defends approach to teacher negotiations

Saskatchewan’s education minister doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with the billboard recently put up by the government talking about teachers’ salaries while it’s in negotiations for the new teachers’ contract.

Speaking on Gormley on Tuesday, Education Minister Duncan Dustin said the billboards were put up to defend the position and offer from the bargaining committee and to display the information it had collected on salaries in Western Canada.

The billboards show that the average teacher’s salary in the province in $92,000, which is more than the Western Canadian average. It also includes the words “a fair deal for teachers.”

“We believe that seven per cent over three years will continue to keep us competitive and it’s also something that is fiscally responsible for the province for the long term,” said Duncan.

Duncan said $92,000 is the pay for the Class IV, Step 11 of the teachers’ pay scale, which is a person with a four-year degree and at least 11 years of experience. He said nearly 70 per cent of teachers in the province are at that step.

Meanwhile, speaking on Gormley on Monday morning, Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation president Samantha Becotte said that number isn’t the whole story.

She said the minimum for teachers to start — about $60,000 — and the maximum a teacher can make — just over $100,000 — is between 3.7 per cent and 4.5 per cent less than other provinces.

“That $92,000 is not reflective of what a teacher coming into the province is going to experience for their salary really, until they’re at eight, nine or 10 years of experience” said Becotte.

Becotte also said the government putting only that information on a billboard is distracting from the other issues teachers want to discuss during bargaining, which including class size and complexity.

“Teachers are coming to the table asking for more help so that they can be more effective in helping their students,” said Becotte.

She explained that students’ learning conditions are teachers’ working conditions – which is traditionally part of negotiations — and more and more teachers are saying that the last few years are among the hardest they’ve taught.

“We really want to ensure that everyone is aware that teachers are fighting for those student supports so that students can be successful and have the best quality education from pre-K to (Grade) 12,” said Becotte.

Duncan, however, doesn’t feel those subjects should be a part of bargaining.

“While we do want to address issues like class size and complexity, we don’t think that that’s appropriate to be negotiating those as part of a collective bargaining agreement,” said Duncan.

He talked about a class size and composition committee that was formed and the province is working off the recommendations that came out of that. He also said government put $20 million into class size and complexity earlier this year.

“We can look at addressing ways that we can address class size and complexity in other ways, but certainly we don’t think that (collective bargaining) is the appropriate place to do it,” he said.

Becotte said they’re fairly early on in the negotiations, that they’ve had just three meetings, and each side has presented its opening proposals and had an opportunity to respond.