Province will spend $300M to set up trusts for education workers

The Liberals will spent $175 million to create the benefit trusts and put another $125 million to ensure all the old plans have the same level of benefits once they are amalgamated.

Thestar.com
March 23, 2016
By Kristin Rushowy

The Ontario government will spend $300 million to help set up trusts to handle life, health and dental benefits for education workers, despite promises that the deals it hammered out with teachers and school staff would not include any additional costs.

While the salary increases and other improvements in the contracts were offset by savings found elsewhere in the deals, the government says the new benefit plans - which will see 1,000 current ones merged into just five - will reap administrative savings and boost purchasing power, and it expects to recoup the money down the road.

The Liberals will spent $175 million to create the benefit trusts - jointly run by the unions and school boards - and put another $125 million to ensure all the old plans have the same level of benefits once they are amalgamated.

The government is making public all the deals it reached with teacher unions, as well as releasing general details about how one teacher union spent its $1 million in government funds intended to help cover bargaining costs.

The bulk of that $1-million-plus payment to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation paid for hotels and travel, government documents show.

The independent audit by Grant Thornton LLP, a summary of which was released by the Liberals Wednesday morning, says that from April 25, 2014 to Sept. 30, 2015

• $391,110 was spent on hotels

• $271,168 went to travel

• $141,075 covered meal costs

• $109,395 was used to pay for meeting rooms for consultations, etc.

• $69,880 paid for “release time” for those at the bargaining table, $27,446 for technology/office/telephone and $12,353 in a miscellaneous category

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation was one of three teacher unions to receive funds to help pay expenses faced under new bargaining legislation that sets out two tiers of talks - provincial, covering costly items like salary and working conditions, and local, which cover more administrative-type items.

Provincial deals are in place with all education unions, as well as some deals between individual school boards and their union locals - though many local deals remain outstanding, including in Toronto where the public high school teachers are engaged in job action.

In total, the government paid out $2.5 million for bargaining costs to the OSSTF, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (also $1 million) and the association representing French teachers ($500,000).

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario did not accept such funds. Instead, the government pledged $600,000 for the union to provide professional development for supply teachers.

“When we went through this in 2008 and again in 2012, the president had to sign an attestation (as to how the funds were spent) ... we had to give a full accounting and a full report was provided - and we expected this would happen this time around,” Paul Elliott, OSSTF president, has told the Star. He also said such funds have been provided in the past, and that the union signed an “attestation” as to how the funds were spent, and also submitted receipts and details on expenditures.

He also said the $1 million “just flat-out doesn’t” cover all of the union’s bargaining costs.

The government says the $2.5 million to the teachers should be covered by offsets found in the teacher contracts.

The central agreements with the teacher unions cover three years - from the 2014-15 school year to 2016-17 - and provide a 1 per cent lump sum payment as well as a 1.5 per cent salary increase phased in starting this fall.

The government says the wage increase will cost $402 million over the life of the contract, and will be offset by:

Early payouts of banked sick days to teachers, at a discounted rate. Teachers have until June to request the cash payout, but the government expects it will save up to $171 million, depending on the take-up.

Delaying “salary grid” movement - which provides raises on top of overall salary increases based on length of employment and level of education - to mid-year, which in 2014-15 saved $95 million.

Unpaid leave plan for education workers - not teachers - which allows caretakers, secretaries, etc. to take up to two PA days off, unpaid, saving up to $14 million.

Up to $14 million in savings found in changes to sick leave policies.

$150 million in “unused funding” in a program that paid for 600 additional high school teachers, who are still working, as well as professional development. Both the union and government decided to suspend additional hirings in 2012.

The government also provided the province’s four school board associations with $11.6 million over four years to help cover their negotiating costs. That money is not offset by savings in the contracts.