Province gives millions to unions, boards to cover bargaining costs

$2 million to teacher unions helps 'offset' higher costs in first round of negotiations under new legislation, says Education Minister Liz Sandals.

Thestar.com
Oct. 21, 2015
By Rob Ferguson and Kristin Rushowy

The Ontario government has paid more than $2 million to three teacher unions to cover costs they’ve incurred in the latest round of negotiations under new bargaining legislation.

The Star has confirmed a one-time payment of $1 million each was given to the unions representing public high school teachers as well as the province’s Catholic teachers in recently negotiated collective agreements. The union for the province’s French teachers confirmed it too received a payout, but would not disclose the amount.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario does not yet have a deal but said in a statement that it “has neither requested nor accepted government funds, and will pay for all its own expenses associated with bargaining.”

Ann Hawkins, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, told the Star the new bargaining system was “incredibly time- and cost-heavy,” so the extra funds were needed.

As for accusations on social media that the payouts were akin to bribes to unions for signing off on deals, Hawkins said “I find that offensive ... we had 47 days of costs to work through that settlement and it was an opportunity to get reimbursed” for some of them.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Liz Sandals defended the controversial payout to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation as part of the cost of the new two-tier system, which mandates separate negotiations at the local and provincial levels.

School board associations have also received funds to cover their costs, she added.

“This has been an unusually dragged out process,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park, noting “each and every clause” in contracts had to be renegotiated. “Both the unions and the boards have had extraordinary costs because everybody is having to rent space and find venues and rooms,” she added. “This will never happen again. This is the end of the transformation ... I think of it as investing in transforming a system that didn’t work.”

Sandals revealed more has been paid to assist unions and school boards since provincial discussions were first held in 2004 and 2008. Sandals also disputed a report that the money to cover raises in the negotiated collected agreement with the high school teachers’ union was taken from a multi-year program for hiring extra teachers to help struggling students graduate.

That program, created with the unions in 2008, resulted in the hiring of an extra 2,300 teachers “above and beyond” normal class-size ratios, with $60 million allotted to hire 600 teachers who became OSSTF members. In the latest round of talks, Sandals said all sides agreed grad rates were high enough that they could cancel the program, “which actually saved us $20 million.”

Carol Jolin, president of the French-board teachers’ union, AEFO, said it “negotiated some compensation to offset operating costs associated with central bargaining and it is not tied to any services offered to students.”

However, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said “Ontarians have the right to be upset,” adding the government should “stop using dollars that should be going to students to pay for what was a faulty negotiations process.”