Teachers’ demands exceed budget, YTG says

Photo by Whitehorse Star

Wage demands of public school educators in the territory exceed the Education department’s projected personnel budget, says Patricia Daws, the Yukon’s Public Service Commissioner.

“From our perspective, we’re really trying to find a balance to maintain class contact time with something that’s sustainable and manageable,” Daws said Friday afternoon of why negotiations between government and the teachers’ union ground to a halt last week.
“We really have to be fiscally sustainable ... and take into account what is happening (in the economy).”

Daws said she was incorrectly quoted in a radio interview last week as stating the Yukon Teachers’ Association (YTA) wants a nine-per-cent wage hike over two years.

“I’m not sure where they got that information,” Daws said.

“When we met with the teachers’ (union), one of the things we did agree on is that we would not be discussing specifics in the press ... that we would have a media blackout and wouldn’t be discussing the terms.

“I’d like to honour that and not speak to the numbers.”

On Friday, YTA president Katherine Mackwood broke the agreement, according to Daws, by confirming union demands of a 4.5 per cent increase over two years.

In the union’s last collective agreement, which expired June 30, teachers received a nine-per-cent pay hike over three years.

The starting salary for a Yukon teacher fresh out of teachers’ college is $57,398.

That is nearly $20,000 more than the same person would earn in British Columbia, but Mackwood insisted the YTA’s 765 members deserve another raise.

“I will make no apologies for the wages that our highly talented and educated professionals earn,” she told the Star Friday.

For the 2009-2010 fiscal year, wages paid to teachers, education assistants, tutors, native language instructors and substitute teachers exceeded $61.5 million, a nearly four-per-cent increase from 2008-2009.

After talks broke down last week, Daws said the commission applied to the staff relations board to have the negotiations declared “at an impasse,” thereby opening the door to arbitration or conciliation.

With the former option, an independent party would consider both sides and issue a solution binding for each party

With the latter conciliation process, a board is struck and possible remedies are issued; however, job action can result if the union is not satisfied with results.

The decision on which way to go rests with the teachers’ union following the board’s determination, which Daws expects within a fortnight.

The Public Service Commissioner also downplayed the union’s assertion it was forced to negotiate more manageable classroom scenarios.

According to Mackwood, teachers are currently faced with typical class sizes of 23 to 24 students; upwards of 20 per cent of whom have learning or behavioral disabilities.

“One of the things that’s important to us is class contact time – the amount of time that there’s teachers with the students – which improves the ultimate results,” said Daws.

“One thing I can tell you is Yukon classrooms are among the smallest in Canada, with the average student to teacher ration of 10-to-one.”

Daws said the government is also “mindful” that the Yukon’s teachers are the third-highest paid in the country, behind Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.