Working hours cause concern in teacher talks

Negotiations between the province, school boards and teachers’ union on a new teachers’ contract appear to be heading nowhere, despite Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk’s insistence that a deal be finalized before the Feb. 9 provincial budget.

Although details on the negotiations haven’t been made public, it’s believed the biggest stumbling block is teacher working hours, an entire issue that Clearview School Division chairman Ken Checkel said was never agreed on to be discussed during these contract negotiations.

The three-way talks that began last fall were to focus on teacher salary, a stable funding commitment from the province, length of contract and a dispute-resolution process that would assist in later local bargaining, Checkel said.

“That was a commitment last fall and, at some point, the province and the ATA (Alberta Teachers’ Association) started putting other things on the table,” he said, adding that school boards were cut out of the loop when it came to working hours.

“I don’t mind discussing it. What I object to was it being discussed behind closed doors at the provincial level by a bunch of people up in Edmonton who maybe don’t know so much what kind of effect it would have on us in our area.”

Checkel said teaching hours would have been looked at on a local level after the other matters were settled. Instead, the working-hours issue was thrown on the table after it’s believed the province suggested a zero-per-cent pay increase over the first few years of a new ratified contract.

But a spokeswoman with Alberta Education said Lukaszuk won’t approve a deal that takes teaching time away from students.

“The minister has said he does not want to see any negative impacts on classrooms, which would be no reductions in hours students spend, the quality, or the time of their education,” Donna McColl said.

Reducing teaching hours are not negotiable, she added.

“Not if it takes them out class.”

The province, the school boards and the Alberta Teachers’ Association have been trying to hammer out a new contract to replace the current collective agreement that’s set to expire this August. It appears no one has heard any feedback for about two weeks.

“But the table is still open … I don’t think anything’s been concluded or closed off yet,” said ATA spokesman Jonathan Teghtmeyer.

He added the ATA is willing to listen to offers and work towards reaching a deal before Feb. 9. That time frame appears to be becoming less realistic every day.

Teghtmeyer said the ATA and the province haven’t worked in secret to get teaching hours reduced, as Checkel contends, and want to look at all options that affect the working conditions of teachers.

“The notion of secret talks is simply ridiculous,” he said. “Just because they’re not held in public doesn’t mean they’re secret.”

“I don’t know whether those four main points was something everyone agreed on. We were interested in talking about issues that were of interest of teachers. And workload is an issue of interest to teachers, so we have to talk about it.”

Checkel said he’s willing to discuss the issue, but wants it done with everyone involved.

“We don’t want to be burning our teachers out,” he said.

“We need to have more of a societal-level discussion about what do we expect from teachers, what is the limit, what kind of responsibilities do parents have to take on, what kind of responsibilities do students have to take on.”

A deal discussed in the fall of 2010 fell through because of a cap placed on teaching hours that would have meant possibly shortening the school year, or bigger class sizes. No parties were in favour of that, Checkel said, adding a cap on teaching hours this time around while not affecting teaching time might mean hiring more teachers.

“If you want to put a hard cap on teacher hours and you wanted to still provide the same amount of what the minister calls face-time with students, then you’d presumably have to hire more teachers,” he said. “I don’t think the province wants that.”

Lukaszuk has said he will look at “assignable hours” for teachers, which means the time assigned for other tasks like paperwork.

Teghtmeyer said teachers distracted by bureaucratic tasks negatively affects working conditions and time spent with students.

“Teachers are looking for some sort of protection from the expansion of these (bureaucratic) duties,” he said.

If no deal can be reached by Feb. 9, Teghtmeyer said it’s in the best interest of all parties to continue the discussions.

“If it doesn’t happen in advance of the budget, I think we need to keep talking about it and still working on it,” he said. “Even if the budget comes out first, that doesn’t mean that the whole thing should be scrapped.”