A tentative agreement has been struck between the BC Public School Employers’ Association and the BC Teachers’ Federation.
Specific details won’t be released until it is ratified by both sides.
But Quesnel District Teachers Association President Dawn Rodgers does confirm that they made significant progress on wages.
“If ratified this agreement will take us from near the lowest paid teachers in Canada into the top tier. This has been a long process and something we’ve worked really hard to accomplish over many years.”
Rodgers says it should help with the recruitment and retention of teachers in BC.
She says the tentative deal also includes other improvements.
“We’re happy to say that if this is ratified that there will be improvements to benefits for teachers, and also improvements to the maternity pregnancy supplemental employment benefits, which we are really proud of as we are a predominantly female profession and this is something that we’ve worked a long time also to achieve.”
Rodgers says a lot of work went into this tentative deal.
“We started this process in February this year, and have been at the table more than 50 days, including last week when we were there all week. We finally reached a tentative agreement on Friday.”
Rodger says ratification votes will take place between November 16th and the 18th.
The BC Teachers Federation represents 49,000 teachers provincially, including around 250 in Quesnel and 340 in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District.